The Switch
by LustForTheLetters
Summary: Jack and Ralph had never been the best of friends, but when a full moon appears and switches the two boys lives, will it bring happiness to the island, or cause it to burn? Rated T in case cursing comes along.
1. Chapter 1

**(A/N): Hey there again guys! So, this idea has been stuck inside my head for a while now, and I feel it's only necessary that I let it out. :D Okays, so about if there is going to Jalph or not..I honestly have no clue what I am going to do with this story when it comes to couples, if there are going to be any (which will probably happen since it's one of my stories lmao), so just hang on and stick with me, okay? :) **

**Anyways, please, please, please read and review, you guys are awesome! Thanks!  
**

**(Also, I have this feeling this idea has already happened...can someone tell me if it has, because if so, I don't want to take anyone's credit for their idea, I would feel really guilty...)  
**

**Looonggg A/N. I will stop it here. Enjoy :D  
**

The sun was casting its daily glimpses of sunshine right before it decided to fall asleep, and the island was quiet. The moon would be coming up soon, no doubt, and the waves crashed quietly along the seashore. Birds were chirping, and you could hear the occasional squeal of a baby sow deep within the forest, but more or less, the squeals were the only loud parts of the wilderness. It was safe to say that the island itself was very, very quiet.

Except for a couple of boys quarreling it out on the front side of the beach.  
"What did I tell you, Jack? I told you that the fire was more important than hunting! Why can't you get it through your thick skull?"  
"What if I told you that the fire can go make itself? We want meat!"  
"You want meat, Jack! You want meat!"

This argument, as a couple of other boys knew, had been going on quite frequently for the past couple of days. Whenever the two boys would see each other, they would instantly send each other glares and fight about the situation of the boys' rescue. It seemed that they were on completely opposite spectrums, the two boys were, and a sigh from a rather chubby boy brought the attention of a smaller, less outgoing boy. The chubby boy sat next to the slimmer one on the tree stump that they used to call out for meetings, and he gave the little boy an annoyed expression.

"It's always been like this, hasn't it? With the two boys...always be fighting, always be making trouble for themselves..."

The littler boy nodded solemnly, not taking his eyes off of the two fighting boys that were still yelling at each other quite loudly.  
"You think they should be stopping soon, Piggy?"  
The chubby boy shook his head sadly, letting his glasses catch the sun's reflection as he looked down towards the ground.

It had been a couple weeks since the boys had been stranded on the island, and for the most part, everything had been working out fine. The boys cooperated with each other, they managed to collect food, they worked often but still had time for play, and they had been sleeping pretty good, although some of the littluns' still cried for their mums. Honestly, Piggy hadn't really thought that the island was going to make it this far, and while there could be more people guarding the fire at a time, he wasn't going to complain if there was nothing broken. He did wish, however, that rescue would come more quickly, however.

The fat boy glanced up at the boy, who wasn't actually really his friend more than an acquaintance, and gave a doubtful look.

"Simon...maybe we should go break them up. I mean, it's really annoying to watch them fight over every little thing, you know?"

The little boy, whose name was Simon, nodded again and stretched his tired hands. He and a lot of the boys had been working on shelters all day, so a break from it all seemed a little nice, at least to him.

The two boys who were arguing had actually broken up their argument before the other two boys could confront them, and they found the blonde boy who was arguing about the fire place his hand on his face, as if in defeat.

"I don't know what I am going to do with him." He mumbled as he noticed the boys walking closer to him. A slight smile came across the boy's face, knowing his friends had come to him to lighten up the mood. Piggy crossed him arms and gave his leader a confused look, and Simon smiled widely.

"I have an idea. Just _don't_ listen to him." The fat boy suggested, but only Simon's laughter filled the air around them. Ralph just shrugged and picked up the white milky conch shell that he and the fat boy had found when they first arrived on the island. He held the conch closely to his abdomen, and started walking away from them, watching as they followed along. The three boys walked in unison on the shoreline, watching as the sun slowly started to dip lower and lower into the horizon, and night started to come up faster and faster. The moon was full that night, letting its majestic shine cover the island up like a blanket. The island felt peaceful, once again.

The boy could hear the redhead coming near him before he saw him.  
He pulled out his spear defensively, as though the terror through the woods the littuns' have said there was, was closely coming in towards him. His darkened eyes sketched a glimpse of fear before Jack broke through the tangles of vines and came into the boy's vision. A sigh of relief escaped him before a trademark scowl came onto his face.  
"Jack. I was wondering where you went. Didn't you say that we were going to try to catch a pig today?" The boy watched as Jack walked slowly up to a tree and leaned against it, letting his exhaustion subside for the time being. It was hard enough to attempt to have Ralph understand why hunting was important for the tribe, but actually hunting itself?

"Yeah, yeah, I know, Roger...I just had to talk to Ralph about it. He didn't appreciate the idea, as usual."  
"Again?" The other boy asked, letting his eyes roll and his shoulder slump. "Why the hell should we have to listen to him? You're obviously superior to whatever the stupid blonde says."

Jack simply snickered before grasping Roger's spear and looking at it carefully. Something slowly came to his attention.

"It's broken."  
"Excuse me?"  
"Your spear. There's a huge crack in the bottom half. You can't possibly hunt with this piece of crap," Jack hissed, taking the spear from the noirette and throwing it on the ground aggressively. The glare from Roger afterwards could make any baby cry with fear.

"It must have been broken because I tried to go hunting by myself, since a certain someone would rather go discuss things with a certain chief rather then his friend."

"Don't blame this on me, Roger. We both know I would go hunting in a heartbeat, but it's just the rule that Ralph had passed when we first got here."

Roger's glare turned from anger to complete confusion.

"As I said before, why do you even bother listening to him? If I wouldn't know any better, I would have assumed you actually wanted his friendship..?"

"_No_." Jack snapped, his icy blue eyes turning into eyes made by knives. Jack knew his friend Roger pretty damn well, and if there was one thing that he hated about him, it was the fact that he always assumed things the complete opposite of what they were. Roger laughed at Jack's response and picked up the spear that had been thrown to the ground before slowly walking away.

"If I were you, Jack, I would really think about where my loyalties stand." Before the redhead could even comprehend what the other boy said, Roger had blended into the shadows of the tress, and the boy was gone. Jack sighed before turning in the northern direction and heading back to the beach, hopefully to just take a breather and not see the chief, or the annoying friends that always hang out with him. The full moon could be seen even if you were a million miles away from it, and the light blinded the redhead as he made his way back onto the beach.  
"Wish things weren't so complicated," Jack muttered before walking onto the clear grains of sand and disappearing within the darkened shoreline.

All the other boys were asleep except for Ralph. The blonde didn't know where Jack had went, since when he inspected the shelters to see if the boys were asleep or not, he didn't see him anywhere. Why would Ralph care, though?

_'Let him do whatever he wants.'_

A snickering voice whispered inside Ralph's ear, and the blonde nodded slightly to agree with what his mind was telling him.  
If there was ever a moment on the island that the boy thought it looked it the prettiest, it was during the nighttime. The high tide was coming into the shore, and the stars looked like the kinds of pretty pictures he would find scattered in those museums he would always go to when he was in London. There couldn't be anything prettier in the whole world, and for a solid instant, he wished he could take a picture and keep it forever.

But why would he want to take a picture of this place, with its loneliness and its darkness? The boy knew they hadn't been there for very long, but he still wanted to go home and see his family again. This island, which at first was a paradise for the boys, was slowly and slowly becoming a nightmare for Ralph, with all the confusions of the children and the newly framed 'Beast' the littluns would speak of. Of course, Ralph didn't believe in such a thing as the Beast, but the possibility of a monster rising from the same sea that Ralph was staring into made the boy shiver with fear.

_'It's just a made up thing the children have created, Ralph. Pull yourself together. You're better than this,_' his mind added mentally, and the boy could only shake his head, embarrassed to even think of such a thing as a water monster.

The moon stared at Ralph from up above, showing its beautiful light and filling up hope for the boy. It was full, Ralph had noticed that earlier on before the sun had even set, and Ralph sighed while looking down at the ground in wonder and apprehension. True, the boys had been behaving pretty good so far, but Jack annoyed him very much. Him and his hunting theories, him and his way of always trying to be right, him and his greediness towards the power. It annoyed Ralph so much that just the mental image of the redhead made Ralph growl beneath his breath. Never before had Ralph ever been so mad at someone else, and his eyes were fixed on the moon to distract him from these thoughts.

"I wonder if anything out of the ordinary will happen on the island, anyways." Ralph whispered. He realized that he still had the conch shell within his arm, and let his fingers run over the thick structure. The shell was very beautiful, especially underneath the moon's shining light, and Ralph smiled.

"I wish something new would happen, something that could change everything. Like a ship coming or something." Ralph whispered, clutching the shell within his hands and looking back towards where all the other boys were. The blonde yawned before concluding his discussion with the moon, and with no other words, the boy simply looked back at the moon one last time and started to walk back to get some sleep.

The one thing that woke Ralph up from a night sleep was a rampant pig, oinking and squealing frantically as it ran through the woods in panic. The boy looked back in the direction the pig was running from, and was surprised to find nothing there.

_'Maybe the Beast scared it away.'_

Ralph shook the thought out of his head and he blinked sleepily. How long had he been sleeping? He knew that he walked a long distance away from the shelters last night, so he had to stop halfway there on the way back so he could sleep, but the sunlight showed that it was mid-afternoon at the earliest. ThAe boy yawned and rubbed his eyes while adjusting his eyesight to where he could see where he was.

Surprisingly enough, the place where the boy had stopped to sleep was the mountain where they kept the signal fire. As usual, the fire was out, so the boy annoyingly stepped in to light the fire, until he realized he would have to get Piggy's specs before he could do anything. The boy was still tired, so he knew it would be a pain to have to walk all the way back to the campsite to find Piggy, and then have to walk all the way back.

_'Oh well. You're going to have to do stuff you wouldn't want to do in order to get rescued._'

A voice reasoned inside his mind, and reluctantly, Ralph turned to go back to the campsite to find Piggy. However, right as he was walking back down the hill, almost as though it was a coincidence, he found the fat boy walking up the hill with logs for the firewood. Piggy straightened his glasses as Ralph jogged to where he was and smiled.

"'Morning, Piggy. You mind if I borrow your specs to start the fire?"

The fat boy looked confusingly at the other boy, sweat dripping from his forehead, probably from carrying the firewood. He set the fire down before crossing his arms, obviously in an upset manner.

"Well, that depends. Do you usually ask for my specs, because you just take them and use them without my permission, don't you?"

Now it was Ralph's turn to be confused. What was Piggy talking about? Ralph had never asked the fat boy for his specs, and now that he was, the other boy said he always did? What was going on?

"Um, Piggy...I have no clue what you are talking about, but I have never used your specs for anything."

Piggy laughed almost hysterically after Ralph said that. It was very annoying to the other boy to watch the laughing boy treat him as though he was an idiot. Ralph glared as Piggy slowly started to calm down, before a serious face showed up the fat boy's face.

"You've turned awfully batty, haven't you, Jack? Although, I guess you've always been that way."

Piggy sighed before picking up the firewood again and left Ralph in a complete bafflement. Jack? The boy glanced back to see if the boy was there, but he was nowhere in sight. Was Piggy the batty one?

"What are you _talking_ about, Jack is nowhere near us!" Ralph sounded very irritated, and Piggy simply shook his head before picking up the remaining amounts of firewood.

"Um...Jack? What are you talking about? Please quit teasing me and my sight, if that's what you are doing! Also, figured you should know that it's your turn today to watch the fire. Ralph told me yesterday. See you later, then, I suppose."

The fat boy laughed slightly and walked back to the mountaintop. Ralph scratched his head, wondering if everyone had just gone completely looney. Piggy was normally smarter than he was, even though he didn't really want to admit to that, so why was Piggy being so unrealistic?

Ralph shrugged to himself before starting to walk back through the forest, catching the eyes of the some of the hunters on the way down. For some strange reason, the hunters gave him a huge smile, while normally they just see him and do nothing. What was the occasion? Was there a holiday that Ralph needed to know about or something? An inside joke, maybe? Whatever it was, the boy wanted to get to the bottom of it.

He stopped by the watering hole and grabbed a coconut filled with water before taking a huge gulp of it and watching it run down his arms, but the weird thing was, when the drops of the water came down, he noticed his arms were covered completely with...freckles? Why in the world did he have freckles, or was it chicken pox? No it couldn't be, Ralph wasn't normally sick. Maybe it was something in the berries, but the fact that even had orange freckles trailing up and down his arms reminded him a whole like...

The boy's eyes widened frighteningly as the boy quickly took off the dark grey shirt he was wearing and looking down his stomach to realize his skin was extremely pale. Ralph knew that he was pretty tan compared to the other boys on the island, so did he have a certain sickness?  
Frantically, the boy fell to the watering hole and covered his face with water, to remove any of these illusions from his head. The cold water left the panicking boy in a state of calmness, especially since the weather was so hot that day, so he dunked his entire head into the pool before slowly crawling out and taking deep breathes.

_'Just calm down, Ralph. Nothing it going on, nothing is going on...'_

The boy glanced at the freckles again and burned red with shame. He honestly had no clue what was going on, or how to fix it.  
Ralph glanced down at his reflection in the water after thinking hard, and his eyes widened almost to the brink of them falling out completely.

The boy no longer had blonde hair, but dark red, and the boy's eyes were no longer dark blue, but an icy blue color. Freckles were all over his face, and his face looked extremely bony. This boy was not Ralph, but instead...  
_** "JACK!"**_


	2. Chapter 2

He couldn't really think of a reason why, but for some reason, when Jack woke up the next morning, he felt...really different.  
He woke up to the warm sun shining on him really intensely, and the boy moaned while stretching. He felt like he didn't get much sleep the night before, and he tiredly woke up and moved around the cave to wake up. It didn't really feel like it was early in the morning, but the boy could tell that it wasn't anywhere near the late afternoon. Perhaps mid-afternoon?

His stomach growled rather loudly, and the boy walked out of the cave to find to find Roger flicking a stick on some random lizard that was moving around. Did the boy really feel it necessary to harm everything that crawled and/or existed? Jack walked up to the boy and gave a slight smile.

"Hey." He said, and the boy looked back and raised an eyebrow.  
"Um...hi?" Jack watched as his friend rolled his eyes and went back to hitting the lizard. Somebody was obviously in a cranky mood. Was he surprised that Roger was, though? Not really.

"Aw, somebody's in a bad mood." The boy squished his cheeks together and made a sarcastic face. The noirette looked back and stared at Jack for a while, with the most bizarre expression on his face. What was his problem? He looked like he had just eaten cockroaches. Jack laughed at placed his hands on his hips.  
"What's the problem with you, Roger? Usually you're not this...well, you know...Roger."

The boy turned from a look of confusion to a look of anger as the boy stood up from where he was sitting and threw a finger at him.

"Fuck off, Ralph. Jack told me about what you told him yesterday."

Ralph? What the hell was the boy talking about? Jack, baffled and dumbfounded, just stared at the other boy, expressionless, before busting out into a round of laughter. Normally, Roger didn't really tell jokes to anyone, but now that he was telling one of the redhead? Jack was actually quite amused. His laughing session lasted for a little bit before the boy cleaned off the tears that went down his face and stood straight again. A smile still played on his face, however.

"I'm sorry, Roger, didn't realize today was opposite day. Who are you then, Piggy?"

Roger furiously shook his head and dropped his stick before walking away, clearly annoyed. Jack watched him leave and was confused as to why Roger wouldn't want to talk to him. I mean, if Roger really wanted to poke the lizard in peace, he could have just said so. Jack sighed before walking away in a different direction and heading off into the jungle to find something to eat.

The jungle was actually quiet today, surprisingly. Normally, it would be full of yelling from the littluns, or the constant squealing of the pigs, or even the annoying noise of the forest insects, but today it was tolerable. Jack watched the sun brightly shine through the tops of the trees and cause the ground below him to create paths besides the shadowy parts of the jungle, and the boy walked through the parts where the sun shone the brightest to see if there was anyone else awake. Ralph and Piggy were probably already awake, knowing them, and they were probably just trying to light the signal fire again. The boy snickered while picturing them light the fire up, even though they probably already knew that nobody was really going to pay it any attention except for them. Jack even wondered why they even really needed a fire, or at least why the fire was more important in Ralph's eyes than hunting and getting food for the entire lot of them, especially considering that fruit and nuts that the boys collected to eat started to get bland after eating them for a while.

"What a dumb way to run a tribe..." the boy muttered underneath his breath as he neared a small pool of water and dropped down to have a sip. He got down on all fours and sipped the water greedily, letting his dehydrated body get all the water it would need. He heard a noise rustle through the bushes, and the boy's eyes shot a quick glance at what was making the noise. It was a small figure walking through the trees over to the pool of water where Jack was, and the boy could only sigh as he realized who it was.

Simon smiled while following a monarch butterfly that flew around, and the poor boy couldn't look happier. His green eyes lit up with curiosity as the butterfly eventually flew over Jack and over the pool, and the boy smiled even wider when he realized who was drinking from the pool.

"Um...morning Ralph. Usually you're up a lot earlier than today, huh?" Simon happily sat next to Jack, and the boy cocked his head to the side in amusement.

Apparently, Roger had the idea to tell everyone about the prank, and now Simon was trying it on him. Unfortunately for the littler boy, Jack already knew what was going on.

"Save the act, Simon. I already know about the trick, and it's safe to say that I know you're trying to somehow persuade me that I am actually Ralph." The green eyed boy looked confusingly at the older boy and bit his lip in misunderstanding.

"What..act, Ralph? I don't understand."

Jack laughed loudly at the boy's statement and playfully rolled his eyes before taking another long sip from the pool. The boy then wiped his arm on his wet mouth to remove the remaining drips of water before looking at Simon straight in the eyes.

"Well, to save you from any further looks of embarrassment, since I am always right, I will just say that it was really sweet of you to keep trying to play this prank on me, and I have to admit, Roger had gotten me kinda good at first, but I have yet to fall for it, so I think you should stop now that you have gotten to this point."

Simon looked at his friend with a confused smile, and simply shook his head in bafflement. The boy never thought of Ralph as being batty, but something must have gotten in his head or something, because he certainly was acting that way. Simon sighed before an intriguing idea came to his mind. His smile grew wider as his eyes squinted to show humor.

"Okay, okay, you got me. But before I step down to my knees in utter defeat, you should know that there is actually something on your corner of your eye. I can't explain it, it might be grass but..."

The little boy watched as the other boy took his arm and rubbed his eyes to remove whatever it was there, but when he was through and looked at Simon for approval, the other boy shook his head and pointed to the pool.  
"You might want to look and see for yourself. It would be easier than just guessing where it was."  
Jack gave the other boy doubtfully, since he knew it might be another joke, but the boy laughed and shook his head as he leaned down again to see his reflection in the water. However, he regretted it soon afterwards.  
"Oh...my..._fucking_..._God_."

Ralph was pretty sure that there was never a time before this morning where he could run faster.

The boy sprinted quickly through the mazes of trees and vines and brambles while trying to process everything he had just seen. Him, being Jack? How is this possible? Was this some kind of huge, messed up trick that God decided to play on him? The thoughts that went through the boy's mind were a mess altogether, and the only thing that the boy could think of was why, why, why? His breath, coming out in short pants, caused the boy to have a dizzy mind, and to have his eyes blurry. The colors of the jungle made the boy even more frantic, and right now, all the boy wanted was to wake up from the nightmare and go back to being his blonde, shorter self. He grabbed his head and tried to catch his breath before leaning against a nearby tree and looking up into the sky, trying not to blind himself with the sun's strong light.

_'I just don't understand...how could this happen?_' He thought, looking back at the trails of orange freckles that covered his arms and letting his fingers touch his bony structured face.

His stomach growled, and the boy grasped his stomach as if to make his hunger subside for the time being. However, there was no point to stop something such as hunger. If Ralph wanted to make anything right, he knew he would have to confront Jack, first. He knew that if he had taken the appearance of Jack, surely Jack would have his appearance, right? Just picturing Jack being in Ralph's body made the boy want to run away and throw himself off a cliff in disgust, but there was nothing he could do at the moment but just accept it and try to find it. Who knows, maybe the other boy knew the reason as to why and how this could have happened?

Ralph finished catching his breath before running his hands through his new red hair, and let his icy blue eyes explore the area he was in. By his judgement, he figured he was somewhere in the middle of the jungle area, so the boy leaned off the tree and started sprinting again to find Jack and get everything situated.

Simon watched as he saw his friend look in the pool for what seemed like forever, and stared as the boy put his fingers on his face, questioningly.

"What...the hell is going on...? And why the hell do I look like Ralph?!" Jack screamed, picking himself off of the ground and nearing the littler boy with a growl imprinted on his face.

Simon shivered and backed away defensively as Jack had him pinned up against the tree and wanted clearly wanted answers that the other boy could not give him. Scared and not understanding anything that was going on, Simon just shook his head in a completely clueless manner and watched as the taller boy grabbed his arm angrily. It was obvious that, whatever Ralph had done to himself, it was making him very hysterical.

"Whatever that stupid ass of a blonde did to me, he's going to pay!" Jack threatened. His eyes seemed to go through Simon's body like a sharp knife, and the smaller boy began to stutter in fear.

"P-please, Ralph, I don't know what's wrong, but please let me go. You're scaring me."

Jack looked at the eyes of a trembling choir boy and sighed impatiently. He knew from experience with the boy when and how the fainter could lose his marbles, and it was obvious now that if he didn't cut the boy some slack, Simon would probably faint. Permanently.

Jack ran his hands through his hair and paced back and forth, once letting Simon go, and started muttering different things to himself. First of all, the boy considering this being a dream of some sorts, since these types of things clearly do not exist in real life. Afterwards, there was the idea that Ralph was in his body, somewhere on the island, and that Jack needed to find him to talk things through. However, knowing that Ralph was in someone else's body entirely, it would make things complicated in case he tried to converse with one of his friends and act out of character, especially with Roger, or even Maurice.

It was very uncomfortable for the other boy to take a breather and consider everything that had been going on. There was that whole issue with hunting, and now this? What was ever going to become of him, and he knew that the only way he could ever maintain this situation without completely giving into insanity first was to speak with Ralph and hopefully get some answers.

Jack glanced back at Simon, who was still quivering and was sitting on the ground with a terrified look on his face, and merely sighed before giving an apologetic look. He knew that Ralph and Simon were decent friends, so for the sake of one of his choir members, he decided to let his feelings for the blonde remain.

"Um, sorry Simon. I guess...the island weather has just been getting to me, is all. Uh, go find Piggy and...look after the littleuns' or something."

Simon slowly started to nod before starting to stand in a scared manner, and then Jack's new dark blue eyes widened in rememberance of something.

"Oh yeah, have you, perhaps, seen Ral-, uh, I mean, Jack anywhere?" The boy felt clumsy at his mistake, but he knew that it would take some adjusting to get used to this...unfortunate circumstance.  
Luckily, Simon nodded again and pointed in the direction of the eastern side of the island. Jack nodded appreciatively before running in that direction to find the blonde, or rather, the redhead.

Sweat was now dripping from the tall boy's forehead as he finally reached a point to stop for a while of constant running through the jungle. Ralph couldn't find the other boy anywhere, and he practically looked all through the jungle to find him! The boy noticed a berry bush near where he stopped, and he fell on his knees once coming close to the bush before he decided to devour the berries, not really caring whether or not they were poisonous. The delicious scent and taste of the berries completely created pleasure for the redhead as his gave in to his own gluttony, watching as the crushed berries from his hand melted slightly from being in the sunlight, and the juice dripped from his palm onto the ground. It seemed as though the boy had never been that hungry. He watched as the sun, who was pretty high in the sky a couple of hours ago, start to look as though it was slowly dropping, but Ralph wasn't through for that day. He knew that, besides trying to find Jack for what seemed like forever, that he hadn't really done anything that day besides explore, so he knew he didn't really contribute to the ways of the tribe, especially with the fire-watching or with keeping track of the littluns.

_'If only this didn't happen. I would have probably gotten to have a good bathing right now and some food would have already been in my stomach,_' the boy thought to himself as he helped himself to more of the berries. He was so occupied with eating the berries that he didn't notice a figure running up close to him and completely colliding with him, causing both the boys to fall to the ground, and the berries that Ralph held to roll out of his hand. Ralph glanced up, startled, to find that a boy who looked very much like him was on top of him, and his anger that had been bottled up from earlier was about to be let out, like an animal in a cage. Ralph crawled out from underneath him and growled challenginly as Jack stepped up and grabbed his head.

"You. It's about bloody time I found you!" Ralph yelled as the boy appeared dizzy and confused.  
"Oh, my _fucking_ head...why is everything such a blur..."

Ralph grabbed Jack by his shoulders and shook his former self before the boy finally came to, and glared at Ralph with the same fiery gaze.

"_Get your hands off of me!_" Jack hissed before completely smacking Ralph's hands off of his shoulder and walking up to him, chest to chest. Even Jack was now shorter than Ralph, he looked up in the same way that he always looked at Ralph, and the other boy could now clearly tell that boy was pissed off.  
"What the hell did you do to me, Ralph? I know this is your fault!"  
"Me? What do you mean, me? If this is anyone's fault, it's completely yours!"  
"Oh, ho, okay I see. Try to blame the person who didn't even lay a single damn finger on you. Well, its not going to work this time, because you have no single inkling of proof that would prove that I would do something this batty!"

Both boys glared at each other, as if looks could kill, and Ralph sighed before turning away and placing his face on his head and trying to keep calm. He knew that out of any other boy on the island, Jack was the most ill-tempered, so getting on his bad side was extremely catastrophic to his own health. The boy who now had the appearance of Ralph glared sharply at the other boy, who was starting to pace back and forth, as though to get ideas.

"We have to think of a way to get back to normal, considering that if I have to stay in this body for even...for even more than another hour, I am seriously.."  
"And what, do you say, is so wrong about my body, you bloody excuse for a chief?" Jack hissed, gritting his teeth, obviously past his breaking point for his anger. Ralph looked back, letting his icy blue eyes show a sarcastic sense of humor.  
"Nothing, maybe except for the fact that it's completely not my own _damn body_." Ralph replied, watching as a challenging scowl appeared as the other boy's face. It wasn't that hard for Ralph to really piss off the other boy, something they both knew.

"I mean, at least my body's hygienic anyway.." Ralph started before Jack's face turned completely savage.  
"What did you say?!"  
"Nothing. Let's just calm down and think about what to do. Have you talked to anybody since this has happened?" Jack let his anger lighten up slightly and looked at the other boy a little more calmly, yet his face still looked like it was going to explode.

"Only Roger and Simon. They thought I was batty before I realized what was actually going on."  
Ralph's expression turned from apprehension to complete shock.

"You talked to Simon? What did you say to him, you didn't make him frightened, did you?"  
Jack sighed before rolling his eyes.  
"What's it to you? It's not like it's any of your business, anyways."  
"_Jack_!"  
"What? Only saying the truth. Besides, I have known Simon way longer than you, so I should know, regardless of whether I am in your body or not, what makes the boy tick."  
Ralph sighed before pacing faster and faster. Jack looked at the boy while biting his lower lip.

"So? What about yourself? Please don't tell me you talked to Roger or anything..."  
"I didn't. I just talked to Piggy, and he thought of me batty, too."

The blonde laughed before placing his hands on his hips, as though trying to contain himself from laughter. "He probably thought you were stupid trying to talk to him, considering you're in my body now and everything. I really do hate him."  
"Well, you shouldn't, because now I really doubt he'll believe me if I try to explain this to him.."

Ralph watched as the expression on Jack's face changed completely as the boy said this.

"Whoa, whoa, what are you talking about, with this explaining shit? Oh no, no, we're not going to tell anybody about this. Do you realize it would be like a suicide attempt of making fun if we tried? Imagine their faces, we'd never be let down!"

Ralph stared at the other boy with a look of frustration. Why did the boy always have to thing so complicated?

"Well, if we managed to convince someone what happened, they could help try to reverse this thing that happened to us, and we could be turned back to normal again!" Ralph smiled as the thought of returning to his body came to his mind, instead of being trapped with this tall, pale, ginger boy prison. The other boy simply sighed and shook his head before sitting on a nearby rock and placing his head within his hands, as though deep in thought. Ralph smirked before looking off into the horizon and finding that the sun was slowly starting to sink, little by little.  
"So, it's decided. Tomorrow morning, we will host a meeting and have explain this to everyone, so that everything can be understood by everyone." Ralph said.  
Jack rolled his eyes before looking up and down his new tan arms and trying to count how many small pebbles laid on the ground.  
The two boys had nothing else to say for the rest of that day, so as the night came upon them, a new day awaited them, and so did many rather...interesting circumstances.


	3. Chapter 3

**(A/N): Ollo! So, I am really getting into this fiction, so all these ideas are pooping into my head and stuff! Thanks for all the reviews, you guys don't know how happy I am to even get one review, you guys are awesome! :D So...I have a question, it's after the fic, though. Enjoy, read and review though :D**

Ralph awakened with a sharp headache and a sudden hunger. His stomach throbbed with a lack of food, and the boy was forced to get up and try to find more berries from where he found them yesterday. Once he reached the bushes, he grabbed a few berries and glanced at a sleeping body that was nearby, his eyes shut and his breathing quiet. Ralph wasn't surprised, he wasn't normally a heavy sleeper whenever he was in his body, but he noticed that Jack's face was covered with the pink stain of berries and his mouth was open.  
'Only Jack...' He thought as he kicked the other boy lightly and watched as the dark blue eyes opened slowly. Jack blinked repeatedly before looking up at the tall boy blocking the sunlight and squinted.

"Oh...uh, morning." Ralph rolled his eyes as the other boy slowly started to get up, the stains distracting him and causing the other boy to make a gesture for Jack to rub them off. Jack rubbed his arm over his mouth and yawned while stretching.  
"So, are you ready for us the start the meeting?"  
Jack blinked again, a look of exhaustion over him, before giving a confused look.  
"Wait, we're still doing that?" Ralph nodded slowly while giving an obvious look, and Jack sighed. "Can't we wait until later?"  
"_Jack_. Really?"  
"I mean, I just woke up, and I am guessing that you did, too. We should wait until later on in the afternoon before we do anything like make a meeting."

Suddenly a look of awareness came onto the blonde boy as he glanced at a nearby pool of water nervously before walking over to a nearby bush and...started to unzip his pants. Ralph looked curiously at what Jack was doing.  
"Jack...what are you doing?"  
Jack looked back irritably. "...going to the restroom?"

Ralph's eyes widened before waving his hands frantically everywhere.  
"Can't you wait until, you know, after we change back to our normal selves? I mean...well, you know!" Ralph said as an expression of disgust appeared on his face, and Jack rolled his eyes while placing his hands on his hips.  
"Ralph, we're both boys here, so don't act like the overly feminine girl you are." Ralph stared at Jack as though a second head just grew out of his neck.  
"Are you an idiot?! That's my, er, thing you're going to use, and you don't even care about how I feel?"

"..._no_? Since when do I care what you think?" The blonde replied before unzipping the shorts all the way and making a hole with his foot. Ralph covered his mouth with his hand in nauseation as the smell of urine soon floated to where he was.

The two boys walked reluctantly side by side while walking back to the beach to begin the meeting, after much persuasion by Ralph's part, and the two boys finally came to the tree stump with the conch shell sitting right next to it. The tall boy smiled while picking the shell up fondly, remembering the memories the shell had given him so far, and Jack could only roll his eyes. Ralph drummed his fingers against the shell while looking out into the bright, beautiful ocean before then deciding to blow into the shell. He pulled the shell up to his lips before realizing something crucial.

"Oh wait...," He muttered, and Jack scowled.  
"What is it, now?"  
"Nothing, just that...if someone sees me blow the shell, it wouldn't make any sense. I mean, since I am in your body, and everything."  
The shorter boy looked at the shell, and a determined expression came upon his face.  
"I will blow the shell, then."  
Jack snatched the shell and wet his lips before glancing down at the shell in sudden discomfort.

"...you don't know how to do it, do you?"

Jack glanced up at Ralph and snickered humorously.

"What? Of course I know how to do it, I see you do it all the time. Besides, it's probably really easy." The smug expression made Ralph want to take a picture for blackmail purposes, but the boy decided it would be best for the boy to gloat in his own embarrassment. Ralph smirked, his new freckles bringing out the hidden intent in his eyes.

"Then do it." Jack eyes went back to the shell and brought the opening of the shell to his lips before attempting a fierce blow. Nothing came out, and Ralph's smirk widened.

"Not as easy as it sounds. huh?"  
"Shut up! You've just had more experience is all!" Jack's face turned a very bright shade of red, contrasting very much so to the golden color of his hair. The blonde continued to attempt at blowing the conch, before Ralph sighed and took the shell from the other boy and brought it to his lips slightly, not all the way so he could talk.

"You have to spit it in, that's the way Piggy told me his friend did it."  
"What? No, that's stupid."  
The tall redhead sent a shuddering glare towards Jack and the boy shivered.  
"So, that's what I look like when I get mad..."  
"_Jack_!"

The other boy sighed before receiving the shell once again and doing as the other boy instructed, and all to his surprise, the conch actually made a very loud echoing sound, and Jack let go pridefully, happy with his work. Ralph smiled and nodded approvingly before watching as the other boys started to rush to where they were. Piggy was with Simon, the first ones there, with Roger, Maurice, Robert, Bill and others following afterwards. The littluns' and the twins came shortly after them, and not long, everyone arrived to where they were. The blonde boy realized that he had the conch, and he gave Ralph a discouraging look of not really knowing what to say. Ralph only sighed before taking the shell away politely and looking at the boys with amusement, but waited until the chattering between them silenced before speaking. Ralph realized it would be hard to tell them without hard, solid proof, but hopefully they would understand.

"Hullo, everyone. I wanted to make a meeting, because there is something Jac-, uh I mean Ralph and I would like to say. Something very important."

The blonde looked up in apprehension as Ralph passed the conch shell to him and stood closer to his side.

"Y'see, something happened the night before, and we have no clue what happened, really. Now, once we tell you, we don't want any of you guys to get upset, because that would be the one thing we wouldn't want. However, when me and Ralph woke up earlier this morning, we have come to realize that we...switched."  
The silence that followed them caused Jack's cheek to blush madly while letting his hand cover his face in shame. Deafening and awe-stuck, the crowd of boys exchanged looks of shock before their faces turned more comedic. Loud, erupting laughter came out of the boys, and Ralph shook his hands madly.

"N-no! Please, we're not joking!"  
Roger, being the loudest, slapped his knee repeatedly before trying to keep his breathing maintained. The black-haired boy stood up, still laughing, and walked over to the redhead before taking the conch from him forcefully.  
"If you can really prove that, which I doubt you can, then prove it, smartass." Roger hissed, while some of the other boys kept laughing. Ralph exchanged looks with Jack before the blonde took the shell from Roger and hissed.

"Dammit, Roger, this is fucking serious. Do you really think that if I were in my body I would joke about something like this? Well, fuck you if you do!"  
Roger looked at Jack, or in his eyes Ralph, and gave a look of skepticism, and Ralph's eyes widened as the blonde boy landed a solid hit in Roger's chest. The noirette fell to his knees before Maurice and Robert came to his side to help him. They glared at Jack with an intensity that could kill even the strongest lions.

"...Ralph?" Piggy stuttered, feeling his eyes widen as the blonde boy looked up in fear at what had just happened. The dark blue orbs looked around everywhere to not find a single happy face, and he started backing away slowly, the anger still bubbled up to the brim of release. Needless to say, the rest of that meeting didn't end on a high note as Jack quickly ran away in fear into the jungle while dropping the conch, with Ralph following right behind him.

Ralph picked up a sharpened rock he found on the ground and started aimlessly sharpening a nearby twig he found just stranded on the pathway he was walking. It was still afternoon, and the boy watched as Jack, who was still in front of him but who was no longer running, keep glancing at the ground. A melancholy silence filled the atmosphere around them, and Ralph bit his lip before deciding to start a conversation.

"I can't believe they didn't understand." The redhead muttered before glancing at Jack stopping in his tracks. He turned away quickly before stepping up to him and pointing a finger in his face. He looked like he wanted to say something, his eyes searched the other boy's to say something he couldn't really grasp the words to, but Jack slowly looked away and fell on the ground sadly. Ralph smiled slightly.

"Well, it will come in time. Everything has a tendency of coming together in the end, doesn't it?"

Jack looked up and smiled slightly too, although it was uncharacteristic, and the boy found himself standing up again and stretching his arms. The sun was bearing itself down on them, and both of the boys watched as something rustled within the leaves. They stood, prepared for whatever it is, Ralph being defensive with his twig, and Jack stepping in behind the taller boy, and watched as a certain boy came through the leaves. It was Simon.  
Both boys sighed in relief as Simon walked over to where they were. Jack remembered that out of all the boys who laughed, Simon was not one of them, and the small boy smiled widely.

"Hey Ralph, Jack. How's the switch coming for you guys?"  
Ralph and Jack exchanged glances of surprise before passing it on to Simon, who was standing and having his hands behind his back shyly. Ralph opened his mouth to say something, but Jack beat him to it.

"Wait, so you believe us?" The little boy nodded, and Ralph smiled appreciatively.  
"That's great!"  
Simon's eyes showed a happiness that could come from the green orbs that colored the small boy's personality, but Jack still wasn't convinced if the little boy was being sincere, or playful.

"How do you know that it's true, though?"

"I know because if you guys never did switch, if everything was normal, then Jack would never have been holding the conch. It's always either Ralph or Piggy," Simon said. Ralph smirked towards the shorter boy who wet his dehydrated lips in agitation.

"Fine, fine, good to know we have somebody on our side now," Jack stated patting Simon's back and letting the cool breeze from the ocean lift his hair up. Ralph looked at Jack and let his mind wander about what ways to convince at least some of the boys that they were being true, and Ralph knew if there was one person he should try to convince again, it should be Piggy, considering that Piggy's intelligence was the key thing that could help them figure this crap out.

The tall boy explained the situation a littler clearer to Simon, and the little boy actually volunteered to help the two boys with whatever they may needed, so whenever Ralph suggested they go and tell Piggy about it, Jack snickered and shook his blonde head.

"Why should we try to get help from that fatty? It was obvious before that he was too thick-brained to help, considering how he didn't believe you before."

Ralph smirked before pulling Simon and hugging him from the side.

"Yeah, yeah, but now we have Simon, so at least we have someone, right? Simon can help try to explain to Simon, and since Simon and Piggy hang out a lot, Piggy would find it hard not to agree." Simon nodded in agreement as Jack still looked doubtful. He looked up slightly and blew some blonde bangs away from his eyes before nodding slowly. Simon and Ralph smiled at each other as the three boys walked away and tried to find Piggy.

Piggy didn't know what to believe.

As much as the boy wanted to believe that Ralph was just high-strung from the lack of society to give that punch to Roger and cause the boy to have a severe bruise on his body, he just couldn't believe that Ralph would do something so...spontaneous. True, Jack's character fitted that attitude perfectly, but could he really try to believe that what the two boys were trying to convince him before...was true?

The fat boy shook his head, trying to be rational. It couldn't be true, it just wasn't done that way. The only realistic point the boy could make was his first assumption, about Ralph being hysterical due to a lack of sleep, maybe, or just the fact that he could have been frantically homesick. Whatever the reason may be, Piggy couldn't believe something as stupid and fictional as two souls actually...switching bodies.

Piggy left his shelter and sighed to realize that the sun didn't look like it was going down anytime soon. The sun still shone brightly, scorching the fat boy's skin with its merciless rays and causing his cheeks to catch a glimpse of sunburn. Even after all these days, weeks, maybe even months of being on the island, the boy still could not be used to the hot sun and the occasional weather changes, like the pouring thunderstorms and the random hurricanes. It was weird, compared to the constant raining in London, but the boy knew he could adjust to the weather here. At least, mentally, but the sunburns that appeared on his arms and legs begged to differ.

The boy decided to check on the signal fire again, to make sure that if there was a ship out there, they'd be able to see the smoke and come to rescue them. He cleaned his specs before walking into the jungle to find some wood, before seeing a rather familiar figure running through the trees. Actually, it was not one, but three figures that kept approaching him, and out of fear that the figures were coming to kill him, considering that the Beast could be anywhere, Piggy feel and started to plead for forgiveness.

"Oh, Lord, _please_ forgive me. I know I have not been the best, but surely I am too young to die? Just forgive me and give me mercy!" The boy's eyes squinted closed and his hands found themselves in a praying gesture, and a snicker could be heard in the silence. Piggy opened one of his eyes to find that Jack, Ralph, and Simon were standing above him with smiles and laughter coming out of them. Piggy glared angrily.

"You...you scared me to death, you did!" Piggy shouted, standing up and straightening the glasses that became crooked during the entire scene. Ralph looked at his friend, and his eyebrows furrowed together in the look of interest that could only appear on the face of Jack Merridew, and the tall boy began to speak.

"Listen, Piggy, we know that during the meeting you didn't believe us, but can't you please believe us, now? I mean, Simon understands, so if I manage to, maybe, persuade you to believe..."

Piggy's eyes still held that frightened look within them, and the fat boy shook his head strongly before starting to walk away. Simon caught up to him with a pleading look, and Jack ran in front of him.

"Listen, fatty, I don't like you as much as the next guy, but listen to Ralph, okay? He's telling the truth." Piggy glanced from Jack to Ralph tediously, and the fat boy put his hand over his head with a sigh. Ralph made a gesture to the other two boys to convince them to leave the other two boys alone, and Jack took Simon's arm before leading him off somewhere else for the time being. Piggy watched as Ralph smiled.

"Piggy, don't you believe me?"

"..how can I believe you, Jack? I mean, tell me something. Tell me something only Ralph would know about me, then I will believe you." Piggy placed his arm back at his side again and smirked challengingly at Ralph, while the redhead looked up and bit his lower lip in thought. This was hard, especially since that Ralph hadn't known Piggy for very long, but an idea flashed with the boy's had, and the smile that was there before came on again.

"What about your auntie's shop? It was a candy shop, right? You told me...you told me whenever we were on the beach the day we landed, right? Oh, and we found the conch shell together, you told me that your friend spat into the conch and blew it like a horn, right? And I told you to watch over the littluns while Jack, Simon and I went exploring the island that first day, right?"

Piggy's expression of doubt suddenly turned into a look of complete shock and he raised his hand up to his mouth in disbelief.

"Oh my God...," the fat boy whispered as the redhead nodded in agreement.

"I had to tell you Piggy because I know you're smart enough to help me and Jack get back to normal. You'll help, won't you?"

Piggy couldn't speak. He attempted a nod, but took off his glasses and put them on again, just to make sure he wasn't turning batty or dreaming.

"I just have to get used to it, is all...but, yes, I will help." Ralph smiled and gave the boy a thumbs up before summoning Jack and Simon, who weren't that far off, back to where they were. Piggy apologized to Ralph that he didn't believe him, and Ralph just shook it off before looking at the other three boys with a smirk.  
"It's fine. After all, now we have the people we need to get this taken care of."

The three boys walked off from where they were as their stomachs began to growl, beckoning them to grab something to eat, and afternoon sun still hung in the light blue sky like a huge golden ball as the three boy began to further discuss the situation. Now that Piggy and Simon were with them, Ralph was sure that they would be able to figure this out...or certainly die trying.

**Hey guys, so I was wondering...am I making Jack OOC in any way? I feel like I keep making his character so not-his-character, but I don't want to! Also, critique me please: Am I using too much dialogue and not enough action? Answers to these questions would make me very happy :D Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

The four boys had been walking alongside the beach while thinking of what could have triggered the switch. It had been almost two whole days since Jack and Ralph had switched bodies, and while the cause was still unknown, they knew that something had to help with it. They tried all their might to think of what could have happened, but before any of them could really come to a plausible idea, the blonde boy's stomach growled loudly, and he held his stomach to try to suppress the growls. The fat boy looked at Jack and smirked slightly.

"Hungry, are we?" The darkened blue eyes that belonged to the hungry boy glared at Piggy.

"No, I'm not hungry. My stomach is growling because I have a sickening virus that aliens have sent to me while I was sleeping, and they transplanted it with using moose antlers."

Simon laughed to himself as the fat boy simply looked back and shrugged.

"Knowing Jack, this would be the kind of thing he would say.."  
"What did you say?"  
The fat boy sighed before rolling his eyes. "_Nothing_, Jack."

Ralph glared at the three shorter boys and that was enough to make the three boys stop talking. Another violent growl came through Jack's body, and Ralph looked at Jack with concern in his eyes.

"Before we do anything, we should probably let Jack eat...," Ralph started, and a bright glint appeared within Jack's eyes. He smiled widely before his eyes looked deep within the forest with a sort of longing. Ralph followed the direction Jack was looking in, and had an idea of what Jack wanted, and glared in reply.

"_No_." Ralph said, and saw as the expression from Jack's face turned from hopeful to angry in a quick second. The blonde boy's eyes looked challengingly up at the redhead and growled.

"Ralph, you don't even know what it's like, so how can you say no so easily?"  
"Because I know that there is other food we can eat, like berries and nuts. We don't have to go hunting." Jack looked questioningly up and cocked his head to the side.

"Tell me Ralph, have you ever even been hunting? Just a simple question."

Ralph looked side to side and bit his lower lip, knowing he actually hadn't, but knew which direction it would go if he were to say no. Jack's smirk, however, showed that he already knew the answer.  
"Thought so. Let's at least try to hunt, and if you really are too girly to handle it, you can leave." Jack's smirked widened as he ran quickly into the jungle, and could only leave the three other boys with confusion written on their faces. Ralph looked at the three boys and said, "I cannot believe I am actually doing this..."

Ralph and his two friends walked up to Jack who was bending over a river with paint and minerals by his side, watching as he started to paint his face with brown and green colors. He looked very preoccupied in his handiwork, so the redhead was sure that if he dared bothered him, he would certainly get it. Piggy neared Ralph and whispered so that the blonde wouldn't hear him.

"Ralph...are you sure you want to hunt? I mean, you hate hunting, so.."  
Ralph looked at his friend in the same expression that Piggy was giving him, a look of uncertainty.

"I know, Piggy, but I really doubt he would listen to me anyways." Jack quickly laughed loudly, and cupped his hands to his face and make a loud Indian cry, dancing around and patting his chest wildly. Ralph rolled his eyes impatiently and watched as Jack beckoned Simon to do his face paint for him. Simon nervously looked at Ralph and Piggy, before gulping fear down his throat and walking towards his choir leader. It was a few minutes as the four boys put on their paint and Jack inspected them. He walked past Piggy and Simon and nodded before coming to Ralph and shaking his head while chuckling.

"What? Why are you laughing?" Ralph asked, watching as Jack placed his hands on the taller boy's shoulders.

"Nothing. You just have a weird looking face regardless of whether you're wearing paint or not." The blonde laughed louder as Ralph shook out of the other boy's grasp and punched him lightly in the shoulder, an angry smirk placed on his face. The three boys then spent a good few minutes finding proper sticks to use for hunting, and then they were off.

The sun that day wasn't nearly as bright as the day before, and the temperature actually felt a little cooler. The sky, cloudless as usual, guided the boys through the woods with the warm sunlight beating down on them, and as the boys walked through the forest, the constant cries coming from the pigs echoed through the trees. Jack smirked, his blonde hair all messy over his painted and Ralph smiled slightly at the boy's appearance. He was surprised that he would actually look like that if he had ever decided to go hunting in his body, with his hair like that and his face looking so savage. Ralph touched his own bony face and thought of the exact reason he hated hunting so much, that these masks created a different identity for the boys, an identity of savage and cruelty. The redhead just wanted this to be over, and hopefully they would catch a pig soon.

Eventually, they reached a spot in the woods where a wild pig was standing alone, eating leaves that were scattered on the ground. It was completely unaware of the predatory states piercing into it from a distance away.

"Now, if my instincts are right, we should have enough people to at least hold the pig down. All we have to do is remain nice and quiet until the pig comes out." Jack smirked before pulling out his spear sightly, as if ready to strike.

Ralph glanced at the pig uncertainly and noticed that Piggy's face, underneath his dark green and purple facepaint, seemed to squish together, almost like he was going to...

"_Achoo_!" The pig glanced up, startled at the random noise, and quickly sped off into the darker parts of the woods. Jack's eyes sent daggers at the fat boy as the boys slowly gave Piggy the death glare. Piggy, embarrassed, tried hiding his reddened face beneath the colors of paint on his face, and Jack gritted his teeth.

"Piggy...couldn't you have waited to sneeze until after we caught the pig?" Jack yelled, and as the other boys started to stand up, Piggy could only sigh as they began to walk around once again and try to find another pig. Jack suggested that some boys climb up the trees to scout the island for pigs, but nobody really seemed to be interested in that idea, so Jack just gave up. It felt like forever to find another pig, but when they finally found another one, the first thing Jack did was push Piggy back to make sure he couldn't sneeze again, or at least it wouldn't be so loud. Ralph, Jack, and Simon looked at the pig with hungry looks on their faces, and Ralph remembered how Jack described the hunts: there was a lot of blood, a lot of gut-spilling, a lot of violence in general...

'I really hope this doesn't come to haunt me,' the redhead thought to himself as Jack sent a sign to Simon that it was time to hunt, and the two boys quietly hid within the bushes, leaving Ralph standing.

The pig this time was way bigger than the first one, and according to Jack, it was female. Her legs were chunky, and the idea of meat coming from the pig was definitely promising, so Ralph watched as the two boys slowly started to creep up on the pig. Piggy could only turn to not see anything too gruesome, and Jack's eyes brightly glared at the direction of the meat he could practically taste.

"Let's get 'im!"

The two boys sounded the hunting call, and the pig gave the same startled expression as the other pig did before it was captured, but Jack and Simon struggled trying to keep the huge pig under their hands. Jack glared at Ralph, who was just standing there looking at the entire scene.  
"A little help, blonde?!" Jack hissed, as the pig tried biting the boys off of her.

Ralph gulped before taking the spear into both of his hands and running into the fight, attempting to strike the sow with the blade. He pushed the blade into the underbelly of the pig, watching as the blood started to come out. A rush of satisfaction ran through his veins, and he couldn't help but wanting to strike again. Seeing the pig start to become blurry, Jack left the holding down to Simon as he assisted Ralph stabbing the pig repeatedly, and the two boys watched as the pig gradually fall down, her eyes closing and her breathing become more and more slow as all the blood came out. All the beautiful, glorious blood, Ralph never knew that hunting could bring such feelings like these. He glanced at his now completely red hand as Simon finally let go of the pig and sighed in exhaustion. Piggy walked out from where he was and rolled his eyes at seeing the dead pig.

"Well, you sure did kill her alright.

Besides Piggy, who couldn't quite keep up with the speed of the other boys, the three boys smiled as they walked quickly through the jungle with the pig's dead body being carried. They laughed and talked about the kill as it was the weather, and their faces showed the faces of happiness and hard-work being achieved.  
"Did you see the look of the pig when we neared it? It didn't have a chance!" Jack laughed nasally, his blonde hair sticking to his forehead in sweat. Ralph simply rolled his eyes and laughed too.

"Well, Ralph? What did I tell you, didn't I tell you that hunting was fun?"

Ralph looked at Jack and then to the pig, seeing that the pig's mouth was open and blood still dripped from its teeth. It disgusted Ralph to see so much blood, but he did have to admit he never knew how much of a rush it was to hunt. He could understand why the other boy enjoyed it so much, but he still believed that the fire was most important.

_The fire._ Ralph's eyes widened as he remembered that a ship could be coming anytime, and that they needed to keep watch over it. He looked at Jack sternly.

"Listen, Jack. We have to go up the mountain and make sure that the fire is still lit. There could be a ship..."

"Yeah, yeah, of course the fire. We can light it again after we feed the other boys." Jack felt his arm getting numb from the weight of the pig, so he threw the end of the spear he was carrying over his shoulder to assist himself in carrying it.

Ralph shook his head at the boy's childishness, and he stopped walking to look at the mountaintop. He started walking in that direction, which caused the pig to be going the same direction he was going. Jack persistently dug his feet into the dirt to stop the redhead from walking, and Ralph's eyes widened angrily as the blonde gave him a glare from behind.

"_Jack_. Quit being such a child, we need to make sure the fire is lit!"

"Fire, fire, fire. That's all you talk about! Has it ever occurred to you that you might be the only one who actually gives a shit about that stupid fire?"

Ralph and Jack glared at each other fiercely, like two vultures fighting over for the roadkill. Piggy breathed heavily as he walked into where the three boys were, and cleaned his glasses from them being foggy. He noticed the awkward atmosphere, and he slowly walked over to Simon was and leaned over to whisper.

"What's going on?" Simon merely sighed and shrugged before picking up one end of the spear that was carrying the pig. Ralph looked back at Piggy with a desperate look in his eyes.

"Piggy, you care about the fire, don't you?"

"That's right, ask Piggy, as you _always_ do." Jack hissed, and Ralph sent the boy a challenging look. Piggy sighed before looking towards the mountaintop and noticing there was no smoke.

"Listen you guys, as much as I enjoy you getting in each other's throats as much as the next guy, there is still the subject of rescue we have to maintain. We should still head over to the mountain and light the fire again," Piggy said, and Simon nodded in agreement.

Jack realized he had lost the election, once again, and sighed before picking the pig up.

"Okay, whatever. I will take the pig to the other boys on my own, since you girls care so much about your precious fire." The other three boys watched as the blonde began to drag the pig through the dirt and leave within the shadows of the forest. Ralph sighed, running his hand through his red hair, before looking at the other two boys.

"Let's go get the fire taken care of, then we can come back down here and eat...if the other boys haven't reached there first." Piggy and Simon exchanged looks of approval before walking side by side with the freckled boy through the forest and headed to the mountaintop.

Sunset was slowly starting to catch up the hunter as he took a break from dragging the pig and wiping the sweat off of his reddened face. He was clearly exhausted, since the pig weighed probably as much as Piggy, but the boy still trekked through the forest until a familiar face blocked his face. His eyes widened as Roger, who still looked uncomfortable from earlier that day, noticed him and glared as though his life depended on it.

"Roger, thank God you're here, now you can help me carry the pig. Just grab the other side of the stick and we can-." His sentence was cut off by Roger walking up to him and sending the most shivering of all all death glares. It was safe to say that, for the first time in Jack's life, he was actually very, very scared of Roger.

"Is this a fucking joke, Ralph? First you punch me for no reason, then you actually hunt? What sick messages are you trying to send, and I like sick messages as much as the next guy, but your messages are just...really weirdly sick. And this is me saying this."

The redhead had no idea what to say. He knew that that it would be hard to persuade his friend that he was actually Jack, and considering how Roger dealt with it earlier, chances were that it wouldn't turn out good regardless of what he did. He took a deep breath and let go of the pig, putting his hands on his hips. Blue eyes searched with dark brown ones, as the two boys stood there with the awkward silence around them.

"Roger...you know that it's me. You know I'm Jack, I mean I hunted for Christ's sake! Why can't you believe me?" Roger looked at his friend as if he didn't even know who was anymore.

"Anybody can hunt. Jack is just particularly better at it then anyone else on the island, so the idea of Ralph hunting...it's just stupid. He hates hunting."  
"Well, yeah, but I'm not Ralph, Roger."  
"How the hell am I supposed to know that?"

Jack sighed, placing his hand in the tangled, sweaty bangs over his forehead. He tried to think of a clear idea to show Roger who he really was, but nothing came to mind. Roger rolled his eyes and started walking in the opposite direction.

"Wait! What if we hunted? Together, tomorrow, first thing in the morning, you and me. Then I can prove I am Jack, not Ralph! Just please...trust me?" The blonde boy pleaded with the noirette, and Roger simply looked back and sighed.

"Fine, only I want all the hunters to come, not just me and you. Then we can see if you're just fooling us or not."

Jack watched as the other boy bounded away in the western direction, while the pig continued to stand still and start catching the attention of flies.

Ralph, Piggy, and Simon were walking back down the mountain once the fire was lit again, and they came upon a blonde boy eating his heart out to pork. He was by a tree stump, letting the oozy blood of the pig run down his chin, and he moaned at the tastiness of the meat. Ralph and Piggy grabbed some as well, and Simon just raised his hands to show he wasn't that hungry. The three boys sat there, content with their food, and watched the stars start to come out in the moon-loving sky. It was absolutely breathtaking, how beautiful the entire thing was. Jack sighed.

"So, I told Roger I would hunt for him, tomorrow...to prove that this whole switch thing actually happened." Ralph glanced up from his pig leg and gave the blonde a curious look.

"How do you suppose you're going to do that? Besides, we really need to figure out a way to reverse the spell, or whatever happened to us."

"Yeah, I know, geez, you sound my mother. Once Roger sees me hunting, regardless of whose body I am in, he'll definitely know it's me, alright. Besides, Roger can help reverse this thing too, you know. It's not just Simon and Piggy."

Piggy chuckled while almost finishing the portion of food he still had while Ralph didn't seem too convinced. The redhead wasn't completely sure what good it would do to being Roger into all of this. After all, the boy himself was a bit odd, and he honestly didn't have a skill to offer that might assist them. However, Ralph knew that Jack and Roger were pretty good friends, so if Jack really did feel like it was right, it wouldn't be such a bad thing...would it?

Ralph nodded and continued to eat the pork, while Simon simply yawned and walked away into the forest. The boys' eyes followed the smaller boy's trail.  
"Where do you suppose he's going?" Piggy asked, and Ralph could only shrug.  
"Who knows."

Roger and the other hunters were gathered around Castle Rock, a new location where the hunters had recently discovered not too long ago, and Roger was discussing matters of the hunt the next day to the boys.

"So, tomorrow, make sure you have your spears sharpened and your vision intact. If Ralph really is Jack, then he will turn out to be great in hunting, but don't feel the need to encourage him. He never know who he is, after all."

The other hunters gave each other different looks while listening carefully to Roger's words. The hunt tomorrow, they knew, would certainly be interesting.

"Also, if by any chance the hunt doesn't go great today and Ralph is still Ralph, then I forbid any of the hunters to discuss matters with him."

A hunter whimpered before standing up defiantly.

"But you're not Jack, so you can't make the rules..."

"Is Jack here? No, so shut up and sit down."

The boy slowly followed the black-haired boy's orders, and the entire crowd around them chorused into excitement for the upcoming hunt. Maurice stood up once they had left to go play or something, and he stood by his friend with a playful smirk on his face.

"Do you really think that it's going to be Jack, Roger?"

The other boy could only shrug apathetically before walking into the cavern and calling it a day, leaving the brown-eyed boy watching him leave.


	5. Chapter 5

**(A/N): HEY THAR, and Merry Day-After-Christmas! Woo-hoo! *ignites fireworks and dances*. If you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope your holiday experiences went good :D Okay, so, yeah, I had planned to post a one-shot for Christmas about Lord of the Flies, and I am still going to for Most Random One-Shots, so expect that VERY soon :D (since I procrastinated and didn't get it finished...). I am really sorry I haven't posted anything in like, five whole days. I feel like such a disgrace to you guys ;-(, but know that I am fully ready to tackle these stories again so, yeah :) hahaha. So, please read and review, and I will have the next chapter up sometime tomorrow-ish in the afternoon probably :D  
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**(P.S - This is for the people that read the One-Shots. If you don't, you can go ahead and read the story. The last one-shot I posted is something I am going to remove from the one-shots, basically because of the fact that I wouldn't be able to put it into ONLY two parts, so if you read those, just a head's up (I will also be reminding when I post the new 12th one-shot, so no worries or anything :-D)  
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**Okay, now that I have taken your attention...enjoy :) (And thanks for the all the supports, really appreciate it :D )  
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Ralph walked into a part of the jungle, carrying wood to help with the fire, when he noticed a blonde boy sitting on the ground and sharpening a spear. He remembered that Jack said something about hunting that day, considering that he really wanted Roger to join their group, and while Ralph knew he was a bit reluctant to let the other boy join, he hoped that his assistance could help trigger the reversal of the spell, or whatever it was. All that the redhead knew that was he did not want to be in this particular body any longer, and the faster he got out of it and back into his gorgeous body, the better.

Jack glanced at the boy and smirked, his blonde hair covering his sweaty head. It wasn't too early in the morning, but just early enough for the sun to be showing itself through the trees. Honestly, the weather didn't even feel too bad, so it was rather beautiful.

"Can't wait for the hunt today. It will be glorious, especially when Roger sees that just because I am in your sorry excuse for a body doesn't mean that I am...well, you." The boy laughed as Ralph shot back a glare and rolled his eyes. Even after they changed, the other boy still managed to show his childishness.

"Just know that we really have to figure out a way to reverse this. Hunting and showing off all day won't really solve anything unless Roger actually has skills that can help with this situation. And what is _so wrong_ about my body anyway?"

Jack laughed to himself before looking back at the redhead with darkened blue eyes full of humor.

"Let's just say that this body isn't really my type...besides, you are quite short, so it's a bother, honestly."

Ralph's eyes widened and he dropped the wood he was carrying in anger.

"Excuse me?!"

"Also, it's annoying that I can't really run as fast as I used to. Maybe your agility could use some work...," Jack smirked as the other boy furrowed his eyebrows even more so and crossed his arms.

"Oh? Do you really think that it's better for me? At least I have proper hygiene, and I don't smell like pig all the time." Both of the boys sent each other deadly glares, and Jack gritted his teeth stubbornly.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize that I would hurting your feelings so much." Ralph pushed his cheeks together and made a baby face, taunting the hunter with his mocking. "Poor Jackie just couldn't the truth, could he?"

Jack stood up quickly and walked over to the other boy, pointing a threatening finger in his direction. His blonde hair was sticking to his forehead, due to the heat, and his blue orbs made the other boy intimidated slightly. Ralph never realized this was what he looked like when he was angry, and only knowing that it was Jack behind the face made the boy even more frightened.

"It appears to me that you're asking for a fight. If that's what you want, I will be more than willing to give it to you."

Ralph gulped before turning slightly and walking away and ignoring the blonde. It was useless to be fighting in the condition they were in, and the last thing that he needed was conflict. Jack smirked, triumphant at the boy's less than prideful way of giving up. It wasn't that Ralph didn't think he couldn't beat the other boy, since he was obviously taller now, but it was the mere fact that any distractions could bring more harm than good.

Jack scoffed and turned back to sharpening his spear, which in Ralph's eyes actually looked pretty impressive. Jack was the best of the hunters, anyway, so this wasn't really much of a surprise. There were vines covering the bark part of spear to give it that decorative glow, and the stone head part actually made it look really intimidating. Ralph could only shudder as the thought of a pig being repeatedly stabbed with it came into his mind.

"When are you supposed to go hunting, anyway?"

Ralph picked up the wood he had dropped before and watched as Jack simply shrugged. The afternoon was slowly and slowly coming upon them, and Ralph turned his head to find Piggy and Simon actually come through the opening through the bushes and nearby trees to where they were. Piggy straightened his glasses while Simon leaned against a tree and smiled widely towards the other two boys.

"Simon and I...we were looking for you guys for the longest time..where have you been?" Piggy questioned, and Jack glanced back with a glare.

"Shut up, fatty. Where we were doesn't concern you, or Simon." Piggy and Ralph both glared at the other boy before Ralph turned back towards his friend and smiled slightly.

"We were just talking and discussing things, like the reversal of the switch. I don't suppose you...?" Ralph watched as Piggy shook his head.

"I don't have the faintest clue to what could have triggered it. It seems completely mysterious to me." Jack laughed at the boy's response before picking up his spear and examining its final touches.

"Ha, and you thought _Roger_ would be useless?! Piggy doesn't even know how it happened, so how can you even say that Roger wouldn't know what to do if the fatty can't even think of anything?" Piggy gave a look towards the blonde that dared for a challenge, and Ralph watched as Simon leaned off the tree and walked over to where the other boys were. His eyes held a suggestion, and Ralph gestured for the young boy to speak.

"I was wondering...Ralph, what exactly were you doing, um, before the switch?"

Ralph's eyes looked deep in thought as the he walked around the small perimeter, trying to capture even the slightest memory of what happened the night before he realized he was switched. The other three boys looked as Ralph finally stopped with a light appearing in his eyes, and he smiled at the idea of knowing what might have happened.

"The beach! I was on the beach the night before, because I couldn't sleep...then, I remembered that there was a full moon outside." Jack looked interested in what the other boy had to say, so he stood up from where he was sitting and placed his hands on his hips, his eyes trying to search the other boy's to find some sort of answer. Piggy and Simon exchanged looks of some type of clue, and the fat boy took his glasses off once again to clean them, to be occupied with something. The boy knew that his helped him think.

"Alright, so there was a full moon that night, and then...what?"

Ralph, after that, looked completely blank of memory. Piggy sighed as the sound of pigs shrieking in the further parts of the woods brought out Jack's attention, and the blonde's eyes widened in remembering the hunt.

"I should probably go, now. Roger and them will be expecting me."

"What?" Piggy glanced at Jack with a look of confusion, his brown eyes beneath the glasses he put back on deepening in color. "You can't just leave now! What about trying to find the cure?!"

Jack only smirked before shrugging, grabbing his spear, and running out of the part of the woods, leaving the other three boys in absolute bafflement.

* * *

Roger inspected his hunters very carefully, making sure that their facepaint didn't leave much to the identification of the boys and making sure that they were well equipped. The black-haired boy knew that if they were going to hunt, with or without Jack, they would have to be prepared before confronting a pig...or a beast, even.

Robert glanced at the other boys beside him, and he found his eyes catching the face of Maurice, who was standing beside him, completely concentrated and ready to hunt. He neared him a little bit before coming close to Maurice's ear, so Roger couldn't hear him.

"Do you suppose that Ral-, er, Jack will be showing up?" Maurice only turned slightly to give his friend a response, which was only an uncaring shrug, and Roger neared him, gritting his teeth.

"Would you care to repeat yourself, Robert? Say it loud enough for the entire tribe to hear."

A deafening silence overcame the hunter as the other boys glanced at the now nervous boy. Roger held his spear up threateningly at Robert's collarbone, and the younger boy could only shudder as the spear slowly started to rise up on the boy's skin to where his face was. Roger was obviously not in the mood to be playing games.

"_Robert_."

"I..I just asked if Maurice thought Jack was going to be actually coming or not."

Roger's eyes slowly averted from the scared boy's face to where his friend, only slightly taller than he was, looked normal as he did before. Roger was always mad that it never seemed he could intimidate Maurice as much as the other boys.

"...and, Maurice? Do you think he's coming?" The attention was now on Maurice as the taller boy simply looked at his friend in the eye and grinned characteristically.

"I think it's a good possibility that he would. Jack would never skip out on a good hunt...would he?"

Before anybody would say anything, a rustling noise came from the bushes around where they were, and a golden figure came though from the bushes.

"Speak of the devil," Roger hissed as the blonde boy neared them, facepaint ready to go and spear in his hands.

Roger did notice that there a specific way Jack did his facepaint, and that fact that it looked exactly the way Jack usually did it on Ralph's face looked pretty convincing, but Roger simply shrugged it off and counted the boys again, to make sure they had the right amount.

Afterwards, the boys were off with high spirits and a thirst for adventure.

* * *

"...you don't suppose that it was simply the fact there was a full moon that did this, do you?"

The three boys were on the mountain top, watching over the small, yet strong fire and admiring the fumes of smoke that went higher and higher into the air. Piggy glanced at Simon with a confused look, with the smoke starting to seriously fog up his glasses.

"Simon, why would ask that? If that were the case, then Ralph would have transformed into Jack a long time ago."

"I know, but it was just a suggestion. If Ralph can't figure out why it happened, there wouldn't be any other reason...r-right?" Simon took his light green eyes and moved his vision over to where the beautiful blue water was, Ralph could only sigh as he ran a hand through his wild, slightly curly red hair. Piggy was still not convinced.

"We have to rational with this. The only explanation is...well, gosh, there really is no explanation, is there? Maybe we're just dreaming and everything will go away."

"Piggy...it's been three days since the switch happened. I really don't think we're...-"

"Ralph, shut up, I am trying to concentrate!" The fat boy walked around the fire with a desperate look on his face. He really wanted to save his friend from...whatever it was, but he honestly wasn't sure how. Perhaps it was witchcraft, but there were no witches in sight. Maybe a different form of wizardry...but wait, do witches and wizards even exist? This was completely going out of realism, the fat boy knew, he couldn't even clearly comprehend the situation without not taking it seriously.

Simon looked sympathetically at his friend and brushed the redhead's arm compassionately, watching as a slight smile from Ralph was the response. The two boys simply sighed and put their attention back on the fire, while Ralph still tried to think of what exactly happened that night.

* * *

Jack did not really understand why he wasn't in the front of the group of hunters as he usually was. Sure, they still didn't trust that he was who he said he was, and that Roger was second-in-command anyway, but that still made the blonde upset to know he wasn't first in line. The file of hunters ranged from whoever was in second-in-command, Jack only because Ralph was one of the oldest and it was only natural, Maurice, Robert, Bill, the twins, and the rest of the tribe, which were mainly littluns'.

They had been searching for a good pig for what seemed like forever, and once they heard a loud squeal come from the eastern side of the jungle, Roger jumped like a hare into a bush to hide. Jack watched as the other boys did as Roger did, finding bushes and hiding within them, and Jack only sighed before hiding within Roger's bush.

Roger hissed at knowing someone, especially the person he didn't want to hunt with, was in his same bush, and he glanced at Maurice who wasn't that far away and gestured for a sign to move closer to the pig. Maurice nodded and ran to a bush farther in the sight of battle, closer to where the pig cried, and he almost gasped at what he saw.

The pig itself was perhaps one of the biggest, most ugliest pigs Maurice had ever seen. Right off the bat, he could tell it was a boar, and its long tusks were deadly and intimidating. It also didn't really appear to be in the best mood, with flies annoying it and with a large leaf stuck on one of its tusks. Maurice almost thought it humorous how the pig was trying to grab the leaf with its tongue, and miserably failing as it attempted to, but he remembered that it wouldn't be funny for the pig for very long. He glanced back towards Roger and Jack and crawled to where Roger was.

"Well?" Roger's voice cut through the younger boy, as though a knife was simply cutting through cheese, and Maurice gulped with fear at remembering the pig.

"It was...it was a boar, very big. Bigger than the others we have seen on the island."

Roger nodded, glancing over the bush and noticing the pig, since it was actually getting closer and closer to where they were. The bush where Maurice had recently came from was now being devoured by the pig itself, and Roger looked back at the two boys thoughtfully. His darkened eyes often confused Jack, and right now, this was a prime example.

"We're going to have to gang up on it from all sides. Maurice, go tell the other hunters to make a circle around the pig. Understood?"

The brown-haired boy simply nodded obediently before scampering towards the littler boys, telling them what to do. In mere seconds, the other boys silently went around the pig, being silent to not alarm the boar, around the bushes that were guarding them. Roger scowled at Jack while grasping his own spear.

"Perhaps it's time now to prove yourself, right?"

Jack wanted to spit in Roger's direction, but thought better of it, since he knew he could outhunt this bafoon anytime he wanted. Right now, however, meant business, and Jack was more than prepared. He too grabbed his own spear and watched nervously as the pig just continued to eat, its own gluttony getting the best of him, before slowly crouching to get a better look at it. Jack knew he could strike it in the stomach, since that was the place he was always accustomed to striking first, but the pig looked awfully big, and who those huge tusks? One wrong move could possibly end him.

His dark blue eyes blinked quickly before Roger gave the other boys a gesture of when to go. They stayed, quietly silent as the hog actually decided to lay down and rest for awhile after eating, and before too long, Roger placed the signal and watched as the boys charged off to kill the pig.

Jack, wanting to prove himself more than anything, was not hesitant to be the first to approach the pig. The boar was laying on its side, and with a clean and sleek movement, Jack pierced his sharpened spear through the rubbery fat of the pig, and its eyes opened wide as the blade stuck in. Howling and screaming, the pig quickly tried to move from the blade, but Maurice, Roger, and all the rest of the boys joined in, with enjoying stabbing their spears through the softened flesh of the legs and the back.

Blood poured all over the ground, and before too long, the pig looked as though dead. The boys watched their newly dead pig close its eyes, before leaping with joy at the accomplishment of their kill. Roger and Maurice glanced towards Jack with smiles on their faces.

"Well...so it really _is_ you, Jack. Ralph would never hunt like you did."

Jack smirked and nodded in approval, but Maurice noticed the pig and gasped as it opened both of its eyes again and rammed itself onto Jack, who was closest. Jack fell down, and the overwhelming shock of it made the hunters baffled. The pig wobbled over Jack, breathing heavily and shrieking while attempting to stomp the blonde with its hooves. Jack noticed that his spear was actually on the ground, and there was nothing to defend him, so he quickly grabbed the tusks and tried with all of his strength to pull the heavy boar over, even though it was practically useless. Roger and Maurice now snapped out of it and used their spears to stab the pig once again, but for some reason, the pig was persistent, so Jack pulled and pulled at the tusks until he managed to escape the strength of the boar. The littluns' screamed and ran back for the bushes, while Roger and Maurice exchanged looks of peril before finally coming to Jack's aid. The pig ran, although not that successfully, towards Jack with foam coming from its mouth, and finally, Roger struck the final blow. The pig, now dead, fell over for the final time before permanently staying on the ground.

Roger and Maurice ran over to where Jack was, and they noticed the blonde was grabbing his leg with a painful look on his face. An extreme amount of blood was coming from the boy's leg, and Roger's eyes widened.

"Quick! Somebody, get me some water! _Now_!"

The blonde couldn't hear very well, and everything was starting to get dizzy. Was he becoming unconscious?

The very last thing he noticed, before darkness overcame him, was the look of defeat on the boar's face, and Jack could only smirk casually before blacking out.

* * *

The fire had gotten to a healthy glow before the three boys on the mountaintop decided to leave it alone. Piggy and Simon tried to get clues out from Ralph as to how the switch was even possible, but Ralph honestly did not have an idea as to how this could have happened. All the redhead could do was wait for his mind to catch up with him.

The three boys trekked down from the mountain into the jungle, before Ralph's eyes widened and he fell to his knees in instant pain. Piggy and Simon exchanged looks of shock before kneeling alongside Ralph.

"Ralph? You alright?"

The redhead shook his head terribly, crying out while grasping his right leg and trying to breathe deeply. Piggy told Simon to get some water while trying to have Ralph lie down to sooth the pain. The icy blue eyes opened, and Ralph squinted as the pain could only get worse and worse.

"Piggy...? What's happening to me?" Piggy could only shake his head in bewilderment as the other boy ran back with a coconut filled with water, and Piggy glanced at the perfectly healthy-looking leg with curiosity.

"I don't understand...your leg, does it feel hurt on the inside?"

"No...it feels...," Ralph took a quick sip of the water before breathing in heavily, "...it feels like it was cut open by something...is there blood?"

"No."

Piggy watched as Ralph closed his eyes and resumed moaning in pain. Simon looked around the ground, his eyes not wanting to take in Ralph being in pain, before an idea came to his mind.

"Maybe...maybe the pain he's feeling isn't his own. Perhaps it's..."

Piggy glanced back at the younger boy, sinking in the meaning behind the words.

"You don't mean...?"

Simon nodded silently as Piggy averted his eyes back to Ralph. Rationality completely took over the fat boy, however.

" How is that...that's impossible!"

"...Jack is in Ralph's body, so...-"

"So, what you're telling us is, that whenever Jack gets hurt, like he must have doing hunting or whatever, that Ralph becomes hurt, also? The bloody hell is going on here?!"

Ralph watched his worrying friend and, even though in pain, smiled lightly.

"This doesn't make any sense whatsoever...but if it's true, then that means Jack got hurt and we have to help him, in order for my leg to feel better, right...?"

Simon nodded once again and Piggy sighed before running his hand through his brown hair. The confusion of it all almost made it hard to bear, and the fat boy simply helped Ralph get to his feet and gestured for Simon to get up as well. They started to walk, even though it was slowly, through the jungle as Piggy could only glance up at the no w approaching evening sky with doubt.

"This whole thing with finding the cure is going to be a lot harder than we expected."


	6. Chapter 6

**(A/N): Hey guys, sorry for making you guys wait for so long (if you were waiting lmao). I have just had kind of a writer's block with this story, but I am getting some new ideas now that I have written it so hopefully I will have the next chapter uploaded pretty soon (at least, sooner than four days :P). I want to thank you guys for understanding this, and thanks a lot of reading this chapter :-)  
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**Feedback and reviews are extremely appreciated. Thanks for reading, again. I am so grateful to have people like you guys read my stories and leave what you think, it makes me very happy :-D Enjoy.  
**

"Alright, this is probably where he should stop."

Ralph leaned against a nearby tree as Piggy gently took his grip off of the boy, and the once evening sky had started to become darker and darker in appearance. The fat boy knew that they must have been venturing the jungle for at least a good solid half hour, and Simon approached Ralph sympathetically while patting his hand on the redhead's back lightly, as though to soothe. Ralph looked back and smiled while Piggy sighed and put his hand on his face as if to think. The loud growl coming from Ralph's stomach caused the attention from Simon and Piggy to be completely onto getting food for their chief, and Simon smiled happily.

"I will get the food for you!" The little boy volunteered, and Ralph smiled as Simon bounded from the clearing where they stopped to find nearby fruit and nuts for Ralph to munch on. Piggy slid down a tree and sat down with exhaustion.

"Being the clutch for you was harder than it seemed." Ralph glanced back with a glare.

"_Well_, it wasn't as if I asked for your help, anyways."

Piggy could only look back and laugh, his glasses being crooked and his hair in a sweaty mess.

"Please, Ralph. Because of your leg injury, I really doubt you would be able to get far on your own."

The redhead knew that his friend was right, but the leg injury he was referring to only seemed to throb even more once he brought it up. He gritted his teeth as the pain was reminded, and Piggy apologized quietly for even bringing it up. The silence hung over them like a wet cloth, and the redhead awkwardly met the fat boy's gaze in not knowing what to do.

"Do you suppose we should check on Jack first thing in the morning?" The fat boy glanced around for a bit, thinking while straightening out his glasses again, before nodding in approval.

"Knowing Jack and his shenanigans, I am honestly not surprised he hurt himself in the hunting experience. That's Jack for you. You know, maybe if he didn't put himself in these types of situations, this...," Piggy paused, pointing out the 'injury' on Ralph's leg, "...wouldn't, er, happen."

"You know Piggy, Jack isn't really that bad of a person, deep down. I mean, he does do stupid things, but I really doubt he would do these things purposely." The blonde watched as the fat boy only scoffed in his direction.

"Ralph, are you completely batty? Think of the things he has done before the switch even took place! He wanted to steal your place as chief!"

The boy knew that arguing wasn't going to get them anywhere, and he silently stood there, leaned onto the tree, simply staring at his own barefeet.

Ralph sighed before running his hand through his hair and taking a deep breath while staring upwards at the sky, which was starting to get seriously dark. A full moon illuminated the sky around them, and Ralph turned his eyes towards the boy who was now fiddling with his glasses absentmindedly.

"Piggy, do you know how long the full moon stays within the sky?" The fat boy glanced upwards at his friend after putting his glasses back and gave him a curious look.

"Around five days or so...why?"

Simon came back with a lot of food in his hands, and the two boys completely forgot the conversation to enjoy the food.

"Let's eat!"

* * *

The sun was incredibly blinding though the tops of the trees, and the hunters watched as their leader still remained blacked out, not moving a single inch. Roger constantly poured water on him to try to wake him up, but nothing really seemed to work, but they knew that he wasn't dead, since they could still feel a pulse. Percival wobbled to where Jack laid and placed a flower by his bedside, and Robert glanced at him in the most baffled way before leaning towards Maurice and whispering in his ear.

"He does know that Jack isn't dead right?" Maurice shrugged before the two boys started to get into a fit of laughter, which ended as soon as Roger sent them a death glare.

The hunters watched as every now and then, Jack would make a twitching movement, but then remain motionless for a while. The wound on his leg, which was apparently created by the boar, looked really bad, so they spent a good time the night before to wrap the leg within Roger's choir robe to keep the blood from coming out too quickly. They could only hope that it wasn't too late, however.

Ralph, Piggy, and Simon noticed the hunters due to their small little bonfire and walked over to where they were, and the hunters watched as the redheaded boy neared them.

"Um...hello, I am not Jack, I am..."

"We know." Roger hissed, not keeping his eyes off of his leader, and Ralph followed his gaze to the unconscious boy. Ralph, a concerned look coming into his eyes, sat by Maurice and Robert and noticed the robe wrapped around the boy's right leg. So, Simon was right all along.

"What happened to him?" Ralph questioned, and Maurice sighed before looking at the other boy in the eyes.

"We were hunting and a boar, we're guessing, dug its tusk into Jack's leg.

"We tried to get him to wake up, but he certainly doesn't look like he will anytime soon," Robert continued, poking the hunter's arm with his spear and receiving a smack from an angered sadist. Roger glanced back at the three other boys and sighed, apparently not in the best of moods.

"So? What do you guys want, anyways? This isn't your part of the island."

Ralph and Piggy glared back, before Simon piped up. "We wanted to check on our friend."

"Well, you don't need to. We have everything taken care of." Roger replied, and Piggy was getting impatient.

"_Well_, Roger, there is something really fishy going on with the injuries, so it would be best to make sure that Jack was doing well." Ralph never thought that Piggy would actually stand up to Roger in such a way, and Roger seemed shocked, too, before smirking and leaning back slightly.

"...injuries? As in, more than one?" Piggy nodded, and Simon willingly moved to sit next to his friend, who seemed awfully close to getting his face punched in. Ralph pointed to his leg at Roger, showing him what they meant by more than one, and Maurice stared with a confused expression glimpsing on his face.

"I don't see anything wrong with it, just a leg."

"My right leg...that's the same leg Jack was struck by right? Well, because we switched bodies, our injuries and wounds are somehow...er, as I should say, intertwined..." Ralph watched as Piggy stood and started to shake his head, such as a mad person would.

"This is some messed up, batty nonsense, this is. First with the switching of the bodies, then this paranormal injury interconnection and whatever...I just really need to lie down."

"Wait...wait, you're saying...," Roger started, "...that if Jack got hurt in a hunt or whatever, that you feel the exact same thing?"

"Yes." Ralph uncomfortably glanced at the other hunters, who exchanged baffled looks. The head hunter stood, his darkened eyes strangely fascinated at this piece of information, before glancing towards Maurice and picking up his spear.

"Maurice, come with me to get the water and find some food for the chief." Roger instructed, and Maurice nodded as the two boys ventured into the forest.

The rest of the hunters, knowing that Roger was gone and with the sense of authority absent, smiled to each other as they left the scene and scatted throughout the jungle to play. Piggy sighed, his brown eyes looking upon the blonde, who seemed to have the appearance of death. Rare sympathy crept within the fat boy at knowing that Jack actually _could_ be dead, or pretty close to it, and he noticed the redhead sitting next the lying boy with a frown on his face. The boy who was usually happy was now upset, all because Jack simply hurt himself.

"Do you think he is going to wake up?" Ralph whispered, pushing some of the blonde hair he was familiar with out of Jack's face, and Simon sat besides his friend with a hopeful smile.

"I am sure he will be fine, Ralph."

The redhead looked down at Simon and smiled back at him, trying to fight off the negative feelings coursing within him. True, he and Jack were not really friends or anything, but Ralph also knew that he wouldn't want even the slightest bit of harm to come to him, considering that he still human, after all. The chief knew that he wouldn't want anything harmful to happen to anyone, even the people that seemed to deserve some kind of pain, and Jack was no exception in his eyes. The other boy held this bond that the redhead couldn't exactly comprehend, a bond with his hunters and a bond with all the littluns'. He also held a bond to Ralph, and while Ralph wasn't exactly sure what kind of bond it was, it would be simply horrible to let that bond go to waste.

Ralph sighed before relaxing against a nearby tree and not taking his eyes off of his former self. Jack didn't look like he would wake up, but the slightest bit of hope came to the boys that were there once Jack's blue eyes slowly started to peak open. He blinked the eyes repeatedly, trying to get used to the sunlight that was hurting his sense of vision, and he weakly glanced around everywhere.

"He's awake!" Ralph exclaimed, and Piggy smiled as the other boy started to wake up. Simon crawled over to Jack's bedside and almost gasped as Jack started to move slowly, raising his head slightly and looking around his surroundings.

"Where...where am I?" The blonde whispered, his voice being hoarse due to the inactivity of speaking. Ralph smiled from ear to ear knowing that Jack was awake, and he laughed.

"You're in the jungle. Maurice told us you got hit pretty hard from a boar, in your leg?" Ralph watched as the memory flashed within Jack's eyes, and the blonde groaned at remembering everything.

"_Dammit_, he did. It dug pretty deep in there, too."

"Must have, considering that you're not the only one injured," Piggy responded, playing around with his glasses while Jack passed a confused look.

"...what's the fat boy talking about?"

Ralph sighed, pulling out his leg and trying not to show the pain that was coursing through him. He bit his lower lip to stop the groan before Piggy glanced back up and noticed the expression, showing slight sympathy towards his friend. He only wished that this nightmare would be over soon. Piggy sighed and shook his head lightly.

"The thing is, Jack, there is somewhat of a connection between the injuries you two face. Some sort of magical force, if you will, and while we do not...comprehend this..."

"Dammit, just get to the point, Piggy!" The fat boy hissed underneath his breath as Ralph looked down towards his leg, trying to avoid the blonde's gaze.

"Piggy was saying that whenever you get hurt, apparently, so do I. That is how our wounds and our injuries are connected." Jack's face after the redhead said that could have been painted into millions of different words, yet the only one that really seemed to be recognizable from the others was confusion. He didn't really seem convinced.

The fat boy simply rolled his eyes, knowing that this was the exact expression he figured Jack would express. There really wasn't any point in trying to get the message across to him, he knew, but Ralph still tried anyway.

The three boys watched as though Jack could, at any moment, bust into a hysterical fit of laughter, but the pain that crossed onto his face proved that he couldn't even if he tried. Ralph sighed in relief as Roger came back in with Maurice, water in their hands, and noticed that their leader had awakened. Maurice smiled and nearly dropped the water he was carrying with happiness as he ran to where Jack was, and he pinched the skin off of Jack's arm only to receive a glare and a pair of blue eyes piercing themselves into his own.

"Ouch, and you did that because...?"

"Just to make sure you were really awake, silly!" The grin that reflected from Maurice's face made the boy really want to throw up just as much as Roger probably wanted to, and Ralph took the water from Maurice's hands and offered it to the blonde to drink. Jack appreciatively took a sip before glancing at the wound on his leg and immediately grimacing from the appearance of it. It looked absolutely terrible, the boy knew, and Roger sat beside him.

"You need to relax," Ralph began. "Also, you probably shouldn't hunt for a while, for the sake of us both."

"You shouldn't hunt in the first place, but then again, you always do things against what is right, so..." The fat boy muttered, standing up and glancing towards his friend Simon as he too stood up.

The two boys said they were going to go back to the fire to light it again, and Ralph nodded as his two friends left the scene. This left Ralph, Jack, Roger and Maurice to be all alone within the morning lights of the forest, and Jack sighed. Ever since the switch happened, things have begun changing drastically for the worst, and while it was refreshing to have adventure within the island, Jack did admit he really wanted it to be over. It was tiresome for these things to be happening between the two boys, to have to constantly think of how it could have happened, to be pondering on what to do to erase the effect. Jack hated this body, he really did, and how that there was something going on with the injuries, it only made the situation they were in only worse. Ralph watched as Roger stood up and started to leave, and as Maurice turned questioningly.

"Roger? Where are you off to?" The younger boy called out, and the black-haired boy grinned before turning around.

"We might as well get food for Jack since he can't get on his two feet for awhile. Come on, Maurice."

Without another word, the two hunters left Ralph and Jack in the part of the jungle, while the sun was still rising, and the day was still young. Jack groaned, trying to sit up but his body not letting him. The blonde fell, exhausted, while Ralph took some water and tried to find a piece of cloth to put onto the hunter's forehead. Luckily, one of the littluns' left their shirt lying on the ground not too far away, and Ralph picked it and soaked it into the water. The water was actually quite warm, although Ralph honestly couldn't care less, and once it was properly soaked, he placed it on Jack's head. The blonde shuddered at the feeling of the liquid touching his skin, and he watched as Ralph passed a cautious look in his direction,

"You know, I was being serious about not hunting for a while...that wound on your leg might actually be infected, someone is going to have to check up on that."

"_Obviously_. Who said I was going to go hunting anyway? You immediately assumed that- Gah!"

Jack hissed as Ralph patted the piece of cloth onto the wound. The pain was practically written on the blonde's face as it being somewhat too hard to bear. Ralph took it off and put more water onto it, before gently placing it back onto the wound.

"You know, you could have asked before you placed it on there. I didn't even tell you to do it!" Ralph glared as the boy started to rise up due to the pain before placing his fingers on Jack's chest and pushing him back down.

"Yes, but knowing you, you wouldn't give me permission even if I asked."

Jack growled lightly, taking his gaze off from the wound itself and trying to think of happy thoughts. However, being alone with Ralph? That didn't really seem to spark anything, did it? The hunter was perfectly capable of handling this situation by himself, he knew, but Ralph honestly wouldn't have anything to do it. Why did the redhead even bother trying to take care of him? What did he ever do for him, and besides, weren't they supposed to...well, enemies? The thought actually stung when Jack thought of it, and knowing that it really wasn't as if they were enemies, they just didn't get along too well because of their different ideas. Jack didn't really understand why Ralph was so interested in rescue. After all, they practically had everything they would ever need of the island, with the pigs, and the other ways to eat, and with the Castle Rock to protect them from hurricanes or whatever storms come their way. Rescue, while at first something the boys knew they needed...honestly didn't seem so important anymore. At least, not to him.

The pain coming off of the wound when combined with the lake water seemed to die down after awhile, and once Jack closed his eyes and started to relax, Ralph actually smiled. True, he and Jack didn't really see eye to eye on certain things, but at least the pain was starting to go away, and at least Jack was starting to feel better. The redhead sighed before gently placing the cloth away for the time being and pulling his knees into his body.

"Jack." He started, and the other boy opened one blue eye in response.

"Hm?"

"We really need to think about the spell. I mean, I know that it isn't really a proper time to bring it up, considering that you're, well, injured and all, but if we don't get down to the bottom of this thing soon...what if this thing is, well, permanent?"

The blonde boy opened both eyes and leaned his body upwards on his elbows, the blonde hair sticking to his face and his face furrowing into seriousness. Ralph could almost hint a sign of worry in the other boy's eyes, but he knew that Jack would never admit to something like that.

"Do you really think that this would be permanent?"

"I have no idea, but unless we come up with something soon, then we're both going to be well...stuck this way, for a very long time."

Jack passed a glance of uncertainty. He really didn't have any idea what to say to this.

"Um..."

"Jack...don't you remember anything that happened the night before we switched? Practically anything at this point could be something we could use."

"All I remember was that I was walking outside...it was nighttime, obviously...and...that's it."

Ralph sighed, completely running out of ideas. If Jack couldn't remember it, then who was to say that Ralph would remember it either? Jack noticed the helpless look coming onto the other boy and glared.

"What about yourself? Who's to say that this was my fault?"

"_Well_, I don't remember anything else! I just took a walk on the beach, then I went to sleep! Nothing else."

"There must be something else! Did you do anything on your walk?"

"Not that I can remember..."

Both boys sighed reluctantly, knowing that there really was no way to remember anything that happened. What if they were stuck like that forever? Jack ran his hand through his hair and closed his eyes in plain frustration.

"I wish that we could remember...damn it all."

Ralph's eyes widened suddenly at what the other boy said, and he smiled from ear to ear. He finally remembered what happened. The wish! Of course! Why didn't he think of that earlier?

"Jack! The wish! That's what it was, I wished for something interesting to happen on the island, and that was what happened!" The redhead jumped, before remembering his injury and clutching his leg in sudden pain. Jack opened his eyes and, surprised, smirked characteristically.

"Well, glad to know we finally know what caused it. About freakin' time."

"Should we tell Piggy and others? Then we can figure out how to reverse it"

Jack nodded in agreement before both boys exchanged rare smiles. True, they did get along a lot of the time, but there were those special moments when everything just felt like they should.


	7. Chapter 7

The two figures walking into the sandy shoreline were illuminated by the increasing evening sky coming over them. One of them, being quite fat, and the other one being more slim, were discussing things by the full moon's brightness, and as the seconds continued to gradually pass, so did the light of the day. Uncertainty filled the air between them, and only the fat boy's voice could be heard, as well as the sight coming off from his spectacles.

"So, they finally figured out what caused the switch to take place...now I guess all we have to do is figure out how to switch them back. I suppose we'll have to really think about this," the fatter boy said simply. Looking back in agreement, the slim boy had to nod in response before muttering something underneath his breath.

"You don't think that they will stay this way forever, do you? I mean..I wouldn't want Ralph to be stuck that way forever..."

The fat boy shot a confused glance towards his friend, and the blush coming off of the boy's cheeks was evident, even in the darkening tone of the sky above them. The slim boy raised his hands in defense and started to stutter.

"Uh, b-but I mean...I want Jack to be able to switch, too, you know?"

"Why would they be stuck in that way?" Stopping their walk for a sheer moment of rest, the fatter boy continued. "I know Ralph, and I know that no matter what happens, he'll get through it, Simon."

The black-haired boy looked back towards the other boy in way that he wasn't sure what was going to happen. He smiled slightly, hopefully, before stretching in the glove of the moonlight, with his feet tucked firmly underneath the sand and the light reflecting off of his tan skin.  
"I hope you're right, Piggy."

* * *

He could only hope that the pain in his leg would go away, but the fact that the blonde was still wounded seemed well enough to show Ralph that it wouldn't be for a while. It was strange, that this curse could actually bring such weird side effects, but the boy didn't really want to think about it, because he knew the more he thought about it, the most the pain would sustain in his leg and the more it would come to his mind. The redheaded boy tried not to think about it as he made his way through the creepers and the rest of the trees, only to go out and get some food for the wounded boy and for himself, when he saw a boy confront him on the shoreline. An angry glance was the only thing Ralph needed to know that a particular someone was coming towards him. Of course, the only expression Roger knew was anger.

"What are you doing, aren't you supposed to watching Jack?" The boy asked, his glare starting to get the best of him. Ralph cocked his head to the side, confused as to why the brunette would even care, but responded anyway.

"I am just getting food for Jack...obviously he can't really make it on his own," Ralph muttered.

Roger didn't seem convinced, and before Ralph could walk anymore, the shorter of the two stepped in front of him, with his glare deepening and his face getting red from the anger. Ralph was just really confused, simply because he didn't understand what was causing the other boy to seem furious towards him, and the two simply had a stare off before Roger dared to speak again.

"Cut the crap. I know why you're doing all of this for him."

Ralph looked down and wanted to laugh at the statement. He honestly had no idea what the other boy was rambling on and on about, but then again, this was Roger. He had the tendency to say the weirdest things from time to time, and Ralph could only chuckle as his response followed.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play stupid with me. I know that you and Jack have been hitting it off since you two came to the island...it's making me sick even thinking about it, and now that you two have switched you two can just get closer and closer...but just know that if you do anything to Jack, I will not hesitate to plant your head on my stick, got that?"

The tall boy wanted to say something in response, but before he could do anything, he watched as the other boy walked away. Ralph didn't know what Roger was talking about...him and Jack? But...but they never...what?

Ralph decided not to think about it. It was bad enough that the two were actually switched, but now Roger actually assumed that they liked each other? What was this island coming too?

"Ralph!"

The boy turned towards the jungle area to find his two friends rushing over to where he was, obviously exhausted and heated but still maintaining their strength. The chief found them coming towards him, and the boy himself smiled.

"Glad to know you guys made it over here...set everything up, we're having a meeting."

* * *

The group of boys were huddled on the platform, as usual, and everyone seemed tired from playing around and having fun. Jack as leaning against a tree, obviously still hurt from before and slightly burnt from all the sun, while the others seemed rather..less chaotic as usual. The sun beat down on them in the blissful afternoon, and Ralph had to maintain himself while remembering what happened at the last meeting. He didn't want anything like that to happen again, and he smiled while holding the shell close to his body.

"Jack and I have come to the realization that our little, er, switch actually came due to a couple of wishes we made during the night a few days ago. Now, listen closely to what I am going to say, because I am only going to say this once."

The ginger looked around to make sure everyone was listening before he decided to continue. "We all have to figure out a way to reverse this...obviously, because of the fact that we made the wishes that night, we're going to have to wish again. However, there's only one problem."

The redhead boy stopped talking and glanced over to where Jack was before continuing, with his eyes being clouded with the problems that are going to come and the fact that what he might say will frighten the whole lot of them. "The problem is, the Beast is on this island...now, I remember that Jack, Roger, and I went out trying to find the Beast from before, and unfortunately, we found It. If we're going to go to the place where we need to reverse the spell, we're going to have to be careful to not go through the Beast's chambers, or wherever It lives...do you all understand?"

Ralph watched as the rest of the boys, shaking from the idea of the Beast, slowly began to nod and understand the situation. The chief didn't want anything bad to happen to the boys, but he knew that this was something he would have to risk in order for him and Jack to return to their own bodies. He noticed from the corner of his eye that Roger was glaring at him, probably from the conversation earlier, but the chief didn't want anything to do with, and he finished the meeting by looking toward the other hunters and the choir boys.

"I want you all to sharpen your best spears and gather all the supplies needed for the hunt...we're going to need it," Ralph concluded, and without further ado, the boys split up for their own jobs. The redhead looked away from the platform and looked into the ocean, not really sure if it was the best idea to go out in the night and fight the beast. The next day would be strenuous, he knew this, but at the same time he wasn't exactly sure if defending themselves against the Beast was a good idea. Ralph knew that the Beast was something everyone feared...and just the simply thought of it was bad enough.

"Ralph."

The voice broke through the silence, quiet but strong in its own sense. The freckled boy turned quickly to find Jack attempt to lean off of the tree, with obvious discomfort in his face, but he didn't get far before Ralph came by and discouraged the other boy from moving. He didn't want the other boy to get more wounded than he already was, and the two simply looked at each other uncertainly.

"Quit moving! The more you move, the most likely you and your clumsy self will get into more pain...along with me, too." Ralph muttered, and Jack simply sighed, resting his head against the bark of the tree. Usually, he would have fought have to the boy's commands, but this time was different. He didn't even look angry, or resembling of it.

"Do you really think that we can fight against the Beast if we find it? I mean..."

Jack look uncomfortably from the sky towards the other boys, where the pairs of blue eyes would meet. The shorter boy, forced to continue, felt a wave of embarrassment come over him, and held a tint of red within his face.

"...do you think we will really make it to the mountain top and be able to reverse this?"

Both of the boys didn't know what to say to relief the other. Ralph knew if he said he was sure, he would have been lying, but if he said that the Beast would surely come, then it would seem as though he was cowardly. Sighing, the boy had to look back towards his previous self and smile slightly, as though he was sure whatever was going to come, everything would be alright.

"I am sure that we can try, and even if everything doesn't turn out alright, then...then I suppose everything will turn out the way destiny makes it out to be."

The smile on Ralph's face helped make Jack less stressful, and the boy who was normally so uptight and angry about everything seemed to seem more vulnerable than Ralph had ever seen him. Jack looked deeper into the blue eyes looking at him before licking his lips, nervous, and glancing towards the ground. The boy was obviously still troubled about something, Ralph could sense it, but he dared not to say anything in case Jack would be angry for him to even be thinking about it. Jack opened his mouth to say something, stuttering as he did so, but confidence began to waver in his voice, and the boy was strongly determined.

"Ralph..Ralph, I-."

Ralph!"

Both of the boys, Robert, ran over to where they were and tried to get the ginger's attention. Ralph was strangely angered by the interruption, especially since he was really intrigued at what the blonde had to say, but he turned to where the littler boy was and smiled such as a leader would.

"Yes?"

"The other hunters and I...we need you to come down to the forest for a little bit, we need help with gathering food for the travel," Robert said, and Ralph nodded in agreement as the littler boy ran off to join the others. Ralph glanced back towards Jack, with the new look of anger replacing the previous look he had before, and both boys looked at each other awkwardly.

"What were you going to say?" Ralph asked, and the blonde simply shook his head and started to limp off the tree and started walking off.

"It's nothing...just never mind." Jack finished, and as the boy walked off, actually in control of himself while wounded, Ralph couldn't help but feel slightly lonely as the other boy left, and for some strange reason, he couldn't help but feel the irregularly beating of his heart quicken and quicken.

Everybody was asleep, all ready for the hunt the next day, and Simon had to glance from the outside of the cavern. Everyone said before how the Beast was going to come and threaten their travel to the mountaintop the next morning, but Simon wasn't so sure. He didn't believe in the Beast, or anything even remotely like it, so having all this preparation didn't seem worthy of any of their time. However, Simon wasn't going to argue against Ralph or anything he said...he just wanted his friend to be safe was all.

Luck of the Irish, Simon actually found the same walking from to the cavern after finishing all of the preparations and smiled down towards him. He couldn't care if Ralph was in his own body or Jack's, he still had that handsome personality of his that made the boy happy, and Simon wanted Ralph to be aware of that, but was scared of the response. He watched as Ralph came up to him and smiled at seeing his appearance before looking at the nighttime sky and laughing slightly.

"This is all crazy isn't it? After at least five days, I will finally be back into my own body..."

Simon nodded in response before looking in the same directions and smiling wider. He could practically sense his friend, even in the different body, and he glanced towards the taller of the two, happy.

"We just have to make sure the Beast doesn't come after us," Ralph said, and Simon sighed in a doubtful way before responding.

"Ralph...I really don't think that there is a Beast," he said, and Ralph laughed before looking back and ruffling Simon's hair playfully.

"Don't be silly, Simon. Of course there is a Beast...and at first, I didn't believe it either, but now I know that there is one...don't you remember the mountaintop?" He asked, and Simon simply shook his head. The ginger boy looked down and smiled casually before starting to walk about into the cave, but Simon called out.

"Ralph."

This simple sentence, catching the other boy in attention, caused Ralph to turn his head and see the sad look bloom in Simon's eyes, a look of obvious concern.

"Just please be careful." The littler boy managed to say, his face blooming in red and his eyes shut. This comment, surprising the chief, caused the older boy to smile down and laugh happily.

"Of course I will, Simon. Now, come one...we have a long day tomorrow, and we need the rest."

Simon looked up and opened his eyes before smiling widely and walking alongside Ralph back into the cavern. Regardless of whether or not there was a Beast, they would have to be ready for the journey the next day, and tomorrow was certainly going to be interesting...one way or another.

**A/N - Oh...my gosh. I am so sorry you guys. I have left you hanging WAY too long, and I am really sorry for that! Anyways, here's the chapter...sorry it's too short, but the next chapter will definitely be worth it, promise :)**

**Thanks for the people that waited patiently for this, you guys are amazing :)**


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